Ooops! The bees know best afterall

[sean-a]

I hived a nuc a week or so ago.
Inspected on Sunday and three capped queen cells on one frame.
Marked queen was on an adjacent frame- she was a purchased queen from a big bee farmer north of the border - so I wanted to keep her!
Popped a push in cage over her just to disuade her from leaving and took down the queen cells.

Went back last night to let her out and she was dead at the bottom of the cage.

No queen or queen cells now!
I have just demareed a big hive at another apiary, so I will introduce a frame with queen cells once they are capped.

Once capped, I was originally planning to take down the queen cells in the demaree but am tempted to put a queen excluder under the demareed top box and swap the frames into a brood box with an entrance and run two queens in the hive.
Any views on this?

 

[The Poot]

I hived a nuc a week or so ago.
Inspected on Sunday and three capped queen cells on one frame.
Marked queen was on an adjacent frame- she was a purchased queen from a big bee farmer north of the border - so I wanted to keep her!
Popped a push in cage over her just to disuade her from leaving and took down the queen cells.

Went back last night to let her out and she was dead at the bottom of the cage.

No queen or queen cells now!
I have just demareed a big hive at another apiary, so I will introduce a frame with queen cells once they are capped.

Once capped, I was originally planning to take down the queen cells in the demaree but am tempted to put a queen excluder under the demareed top box and swap the frames into a brood box with an entrance and run two queens in the hive.
Any views on this?

Not from me I’m afraid. Demaree is not for me yet.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I hived a nuc a week or so ago.
Inspected on Sunday and three capped queen cells on one frame.
Marked queen was on an adjacent frame- she was a purchased queen from a big bee farmer north of the border - so I wanted to keep her!
Popped a push in cage over her just to disuade her from leaving and took down the queen cells.

Went back last night to let her out and she was dead at the bottom of the cage.

No queen or queen cells now!
I have just demareed a big hive at another apiary, so I will introduce a frame with queen cells once they are capped.

Once capped, I was originally planning to take down the queen cells in the demaree but am tempted to put a queen excluder under the demareed top box and swap the frames into a brood box with an entrance and run two queens in the hive.
Any views on this?

I often run two queens off a Demarree, no problems as long as you have an entrance for the top box as well, although two years ago, after removing the top entrance and leaving them fill frames with honey ready for harvesting as the season was getting on, I inadvertently closed in a mated queen above the QX and ended up with a brood and a half in the honey supers.
In fact I let one colony make their own top queen this year as I wasn't 100% sure of the old queen in the bottom. I opened up today and they're both laying well now, the old one a bit slow, just building up to her fifth frame and the new queen just feeling her feet and working on two frames.

 

[elainemary]

Sean, why do you think the queen was dead in the cage? Was the push in cage over emerging brood? Did she have nurse bees to attend to her? Was there some stores in the section you put the cage over? Was there any evidence of an emerged cell so a virgin just emerged as well?

 

[sean-a]

Push in over emerging brood.
She was only left there for 24 hrs
No nurse bees which was prehaps the problem, but I thought they would feed her through the cage.
They do that with the butler cages when you introduce a queen.

 

[sean-a]

I often run two queens off a Demarree, no problems as long as you have an entrance for the top box as well, although two years ago, after removing the top entrance and leaving them fill frames with honey ready for harvesting as the season was getting on, I inadvertently closed in a mated queen above the QX and ended up with a brood and a half in the honey supers.
In fact I let one colony make their own top queen this year as I wasn't 100% sure of the old queen in the bottom. I opened up today and they're both laying well now, the old one a bit slow, just building up to her fifth frame and the new queen just feeling her feet and working on two frames.

Thanks Jenks!
I will try this. If I get a few frames with QC then I will make a split or two and leave a frame with QC in the top box.