Q cell to Nuc. To shake or not shake.

[Nordicul]

Hi All

Following on from doing an AS on a hive some days ago...both Parent and Swarm hive doing well , I have two nice Queen cells left. One is marked for staying in the Parent hive.
The other I want to use to Re Queen a v defensive colony.

Today I divided the defensive colony into two Nucs . One has the Queen as a back up. The other I'm leaving Q less overnight before adding the Queen cell (sans bees) tomorrow , hoping being Q less overnight will aid acceptance.

As I hope to keep this Nuc in the same apiary, though further away ,once the Q cell is added I was going to shake in more young bees from their Mothers Nuc....then move them away, blocking up for 24 hrs or so hoping not to lose too many foragers and encouraging reorientation of those left.

Then the thought occurred, would shaking in additional new bees tomorrow defeat the plan, to get the colony to know they are Queen less and therefore make them less likely to accept the Queen cell?

Again all views welcomed.

Nordicul

 

[Nordicul]

MMh

Wondering now If I should go back out , shake in more bees now, keep them locked in overnight, add the Queen cell tomorrow then move etc.....as you can see riven with doubts

Nordicul

 

[enrico]

I would have made a nuc up with the queen cell and a frame of brood and food and combined with aggressive colony later.....not that that is right, just what I would have done!
E

 

[Nordicul]

Hi All
So , on the heel of the hunt it didn’t matter about my shake in question, as another disaster (aka learning experience) befell me.

This am I went out to open the nuc, only to find that through the night, wind had taken the roof off the polynuc!
Lesson 56, polynucs need a large brick on the roof.

Most of yesterday’s shaken in bees seem to have scarpered, though there was a rearguard covering some of the brood area, and the Queen cell remained intact, it’s due to emerge tomorrow.

I have shaken in some more bees closed up, open tomorrow and wait to see what happens.

Nordicul

 

[For want of a better word]

I am wondering what the virgin will mate with... hopefully not the drones from your nasty bee colony...
I am with Enrico on this!

Chons da

 

[Nordicul]

Hi

This is a beginners section I think?

I did post my plans on 21st May....not many swooped in then to offer their cautionary advice or suggest alternatives to my plans.

Always easy to be wise after the event, but I’ll keep posting so ye have a chance to continue to knock em

Nordicul