Re-queening aggressive swarming hives

[maddydog]

I've got a couple of colonies that are too unpleasant to work and are in the process of swarming.
I've removed the queens to nucs and reduced the qcs to one. Ultimately the colonies will likely be split up into nucs with mated queens introduced.
Unfortunately the queens, or indeed qcs, won't be available until the end of May and in the meantime I'd like to keep these colonies viable as they're productive and there is a flow on.
Is it possible to cage the remaining qc and therefore save me the hassle of spotting an unmarked q?

 

[enrico]

How will she get mated?
E

 

[B+.]

Is it possible to cage the remaining qc and therefore save me the hassle of spotting an unmarked q?

Depending on where the cell is on the comb, you could use a Nicot cell protector or a push-in cage.
If you have an incubator, you could transfer the cell into a Nicot cage until she emerges.. I do this all summer long.

 

[Finman]

Buy a imported Queen and change it later to better

I wonder, that you have 60 hives and you don't know how to change a Queen. Some kind of joke.

 

[jeff33]

Buy a imported Queen and change it later to better

Finman's answer to everything

Seems to be lots of faffing around! You obviously don't want to raise anymore queens from these hives! If your good stock QCs are ready in 2 weeks, why don't you just destroy all existing QCs in these 2 hives, give them another frame of larvae so that they can raise more QCs and repeat until your QCs from preferred stock are ready.

 

[Millet]

How will she get mated?
E

Perfect Answer..

 

[jeff33]

Perfect Answer..

Hopefully he doesn't want these mated as it's from an unpleasant stock. I understand that he just want them present until the good cells are ready for introduction.

 

[maddydog]

How will she get mated?
E

I've obviously not explained myself properly!

I want the unpleasant colonies to remain 'queen right' while the flow is on but not perpetuate their unwanted characteristics. By early June I will have mated queens available and I can split the colonies to make nucs. By caging the emerged virgin I was hoping to buy time before the queens arrive. Does that help?

 

[maddydog]

Hopefully he doesn't want these mated as it's from an unpleasant stock. I understand that he just want them present until the good cells are ready for introduction.

 

[maddydog]

Perfect Answer..

Nope

 

[maddydog]

Finman's answer to everything

Seems to be lots of faffing around! You obviously don't want to raise anymore queens from these hives! If your good stock QCs are ready in 2 weeks, why don't you just destroy all existing QCs in these 2 hives, give them another frame of larvae so that they can raise more QCs and repeat until your QCs from preferred stock are ready.

This is what I'd normally do but they're horrible to work with so I was thinking if I could cage a virgin and keep them happy so when it comes to breaking them up I can do it all in one go

 

[Finman]

Finman's answer to everything

.

You have a bad dyslexia.
.

 

[eltalia]

I've obviously not explained myself properly!

I'd reckon whomever is "havin' a laff"... your intention is clear enough.

Parking mated queens is as you'd know, standard practice, we've 'parked'
virgins in pushcage (s) for days up to maybe a week with no apparent
bee reactive. After a week...?.. don't know.
As there is no fresh eggs to build on I'd offer the absence of queenright
phereomone might prove a worry for them after a fortnight - the time
it can take for LWS to kick in.
Worth a shot buuuut I'd be using pushcages designed so they cannot be
dug (mined) out by bees to release a virgin.

Bill

 

[maddydog]

Thanks Bill, that's exactly what I was after.

 

[Eyeman]

ROB Manley found 'caging' the QC on the frame to let the virgin emerge then killing the virgin before introducing a new mated queen an effecting way to requeen a colony.