Old Boar's Apiary
New Bee
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2014
- Messages
- 13
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Dorking
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 4
Hi there,
My partner and I are completely new to beekeeping. We've been on a one day course, done lots of reading and spoken to experienced beekeepers, and we're about to acquire our first hives this weekend, where we'll be installing them at our local vineyard.
All the hives are fine except for one which has no queen, no queen cells and plenty of laying workers. We're unsure how long they've been queenless, as the person we're getting the bees from has been unable to check the hives himself for a couple of weeks, as he has suddenly become allergic to bee stings.
We've heard it suggested that we could try transferring a couple of spare queen cells from one of the other hives (that has 5) and see if they accept them when they hatch. How exactly do we go about doing this (I think all 4-5 queen cells were on the same frame)? Can we somehow remove them and stick them onto a frame in the hive with the laying workers?
We don't have a young queen to put in, and we don't feel we're experienced enough to try uniting the laying workers with the other (healthy) hives. If we don't try this we'll lose the colony and it would be a real shame. Does anyone have any advice?
Thanks in advance!
My partner and I are completely new to beekeeping. We've been on a one day course, done lots of reading and spoken to experienced beekeepers, and we're about to acquire our first hives this weekend, where we'll be installing them at our local vineyard.
All the hives are fine except for one which has no queen, no queen cells and plenty of laying workers. We're unsure how long they've been queenless, as the person we're getting the bees from has been unable to check the hives himself for a couple of weeks, as he has suddenly become allergic to bee stings.
We've heard it suggested that we could try transferring a couple of spare queen cells from one of the other hives (that has 5) and see if they accept them when they hatch. How exactly do we go about doing this (I think all 4-5 queen cells were on the same frame)? Can we somehow remove them and stick them onto a frame in the hive with the laying workers?
We don't have a young queen to put in, and we don't feel we're experienced enough to try uniting the laying workers with the other (healthy) hives. If we don't try this we'll lose the colony and it would be a real shame. Does anyone have any advice?
Thanks in advance!