Keeping a queenless colony going

[SixFooter]

I had a drone laying queen which I removed and I have united the colony with another one.

However, for a while I thought the colony might have nosema so I didnt want to do this and was thinking about alternatives.

I thought it might have been possible to keep the colony going by moving a frame of brood and eggs from another colony and let them raise a queen. Then, if the queen didn't start laying, remove her and put another frame in and try again.

Seems to me that this would work, but what do I know; I'm new to this beekeeping lark.

Would it have worked?

 

[MuswellMetro]

I had a drone laying queen which I removed and I have united the colony with another one.

However, for a while I thought the colony might have nosema so I didnt want to do this and was thinking about alternatives.

I thought it might have been possible to keep the colony going by moving a frame of brood and eggs from another colony and let them raise a queen. Then, if the queen didn't start laying, remove her and put another frame in and try again.

Seems to me that this would work, but what do I know; I'm new to this beekeeping lark.

Would it have worked?

your worker bees are old over winter bees they are dying each day. they have limited time to nurse a queen and raise workers, Due to the late spring you are almost out of time...the sceond try of brrod/eggs would just fail due to lack of live bees

Better use the forage skills in the combine hive

 

[Hivemaker.]

Yes would work as long as they are still quite strong in bee numbers,add a frame or two with a mixture of mainly emerging young bee's and a few eggs,break down any cells built on this first comb/combs,then add another,you will then have young nurse bee's boosting the numbers and better at raising a queen cell on this frame.
Lot of messing about,and obviously your weakening other colonys,but can be done ok.

 

[oliver90owner]

Hivemaker is quite right that you can keep them going, but at what cost? Your other two colonies would need to be weakened to keep them going for maybe another 6 weeks (nearly a bee lifespan in the summer months) and then only finish up with an emergency (scrub) queen. No, not worth the effort in my opinion.

You should now have two strong colonies which will split easily to replace the lost one, when the time is right.

Regards, RAB

 

[buzz lightyear]

why significantly reduce the 2 other colonys? You will easily be able to make up a nuc later in the season if these build up ok. But this could be risked if you pull brood at this very important stage.
Regards, Dave

 

[ENZO]

If you do decide to add a frame of eggs/brood and they raise cells, after 3 or 4 days, destroy all but two queen cells so that the bees don't have to feed more queen cells then they have to and that the remaining cells should be well fed.

I suppose it all depends how many bees you have in the hive and how many frames of brood you wish to donate to it, as others have said, It may just not be worth it, a split next month may be a better option.

good luck, Enzo

 

[SixFooter]

Thanks all. I though it might not be a good idea especially as I'm going on the Stoneleigh Q rearing course next weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to raise a proper Queen later on in the year.
Now I know that it would probably work, but probably isnt good plan.