Re-queening advice

[sheena]

I've read several different accounts of the best way to go about this but would like some advice on best way for my situation.

I split my hive in May hoping to prevent a swarm and up my single hive to two.

The split made queen cells which hatched sometime between 20th and 27th of May. There is still no sign of a queen in there though I guess I shouldn't give up hope until next weekend? They seem pleasant natured enough in that hive and have been gathering pollen but they don't seem to have left any cells in preparation for a laying queen.

The hive I took the split from - well I must have had a queen disaster. I have not been able to find the queen since the split but they did not make a new queen. There has been no new brood. The last drones hatched out sometime in the last week. They are a bit grumpy and even did a terrible thing and one of them stung a neighbour ( neighbours unfortunately cut down the shrubs that acted as a barrier between field with hives and their garden. - but that's side tracking )

So I am pretty sure I have no queen in that hive and need to requeen next weekend ( which is next time I can get there and also it will probably take me till then to acquire a queen)

Should I go for the queen introduction cage into the hive or should I move some of the bees out into a nuc and introduce her there via the cage she came in. If I did the latter could I then merge the bees back together once she was accepted and laying in the nuc? perhaps after a couple of weeks?

Or should I buy two queens ( eek ) and do both methods in the hop that one works?

If I intorduce the queen via an introduction cage do I need to push it into an area of frame that contains both honey and empty cells and make sure the hand maidens who travelled with her are also in the cage to feed her?

Sorry for the length of this! Any advice gratefully accepted!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The first hive you mention - the split - is early yet to see eggs and brood (let's take 27th of May as emergence date) so I'd give it a few more weeks especially as the weather's been so poor- nicely sheltered though Tigh'nabruaich is, you're still on the Clyde.
As for your original hive - what do you think happened? a test frame would have been your first step, but it looks like you haven't access to one.
in my opinion, if you're sure original hive is queenless go ahead and requeen that one and leave the split for a little while longer.
There is differing opinion on leaving the attendants in with the queen so i'll leave someone else to debate that one - the resident bees will feed the queen regardless of whether they want to kill her or not . Personally i'd introduce her into the whole hive with some tape over the candy plug for now until they get really used to her.
Nice place you live in - many's a night I've spent on our cutter tied up on the old wooden pier (my crew actually spent last Christmas day there - i was on leave) bit hairy navigating around the Kyles though!

 

[AndreaW]

I left my hives 3 weeks from the earliest I knew I had a hatched virgin queen in each before I looked for brood. It can take that long for a queen to mate and start laying.

Others will comment but you need to be really sure you are queenless before you buy in queens - can you put in a test frame (from a fellow beek perhaps) to be sure? Otherwise the queens will fight and you could end up with one damaged queen