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Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
424
Reaction score
112
Location
Rhondda S. Wales
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
4 national
I'm a compleat novice! So this is my problem.....Bought a nuc first week of June, They swarmed third week of July so lost queen. A local expert helped us to set up a nuc with a queen cell(sealled) and we left a sealed queen cell in the old hive. The nuc queen emerged and we now have a compleat Very busy hive, full of bees busy collecting nectar.
The old hive appeared to be queen right, but we could not find the queen.there was a lot of brood, neatly laid in the centre of one frame but it was drone brood. still no sign of a queen.We checked many times but no queen. So we purchased a new queen for the old hive. Followed the introduction instructions but 10 days after she was released there was no sign of her, but there was signs of laying workers, random patterns of eggs and brood. Soooo Should we leave the old hive die out over the winter or get a new queen( autumn has arrived very early in this part of the woods.)

Bryan
 
Standard procedure. Add a test frame. Determine if there is a queen. If it appears not add another and order a queen. A bit late now for a new hatching queen to put the colony back on track. Failing that, a newly hatched queen would make uniting with your good colony that much safer after her removal.

Regards, RAB
 
and if you do mange to get a new queen don't forget to shake all the bees out on to a sheet a short distance from the hive to get rid of the laying worker. i hope it works out well for you.
 
Thanks Rab
Ive read somewhere that if I introduce a new queen to the hive the laying workers would kill her because they think themselves to be queen right. I was thinking of uniting the two hives using the paper and queen excluder method, but I also read that this may result in the queen being killed by the laying workers. I must admit I'm getting rather confused!
Cheers

Bryan

Just seen Georgia B post.. thanks!
 
Last edited:
Lee?

You are suffering from the result of a classic error which is to buy and introduce a queen to a colony which ALREADY had one of some description. In this situation for some odd reason the purchased queen nearly always is killed.

Now you appear to have laying workers. Search that on here and the concurrence is to shake them off some distance from the hive stand to filter out the laying workers. Then I would offer a test frame to make sure they are queenless. And ONLY then would I attempt a unite.

PH
 
I agree. I just 'did' my first test frame and got the result I was looking for in four days..no queen. Combined with a queenright colony. Everything now hunky dory.
 
I bought 2 queens 2 weeks ago. Neither were accepted and bothe colonies are now queenless. I put test frames in and they made Q cells. Am I likely to be more successful introducing new queens now or should I leave the Q cells and let the bees raise their own?
 
Thanks everyone .Advice and suggestions seem sound. I've learned from my mistakes,and you have definately helped me
Cheers

Bryan
 

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