la vauterie
New Bee
I am a new bee keeper, along with two other mates. We have a problem with many drone cells in a hive we combined last November successfully. Opened last week on a sunny day, no capped brood, only many drone cells. So many bees in the hive that we just could not find the queen, but I suspect that there isn't one there, due to no capped brood. Lots of honey in the hive, and have seen workers in and out with pollen on the few sunny days we have had. Cannot find a new queen anywhere to re queen, everybody says too early. We have 2 new queens on order, and our other hive in a different location is fine, but I think not strong enough to take a frame with capped brood for the other hive. What to do ? It is very cold here, snow this morning, big frost tonight. Should we take out the frames which have most of the drone cells, will this prolong the life of the hive, hopefully until we receive the new queen. Any advise ?