Split Hive Queen Introduction to Queenless Hive

[BeeJuice]

I have vertically split a colony with the original queen (lets call her Margaret) in the bottom BB, then a Snelgrove board and then a top BB into which I have introduced a new Buckfast Queen (Joan)

I have a second colony which I also split vertically - it has a queenless BB at the top and a queenless BB at the bottom (the queen from the bottom BB recently swarmed and is now in a new hive)

I'd like to introduce Margaret to the Queenless second colony.

In principal, should it be OK if I introduce her in a cage to the queenless top brood box (which has been queenless for a week) and reunite the two BBs by removing the snelgrove board (which has a mesh for airflow) .. then remove any QCs which may have been made in the lower BB.

If things had worked out differently I could have introduced Joan (the new queen) to hive 2 and saved a lot of faffing about but I am where I am....

Thanks

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You could always (once they have stopped making QC's in the Q- colony)reduce the Q- colony back down to the original brood box (no need for a Demarree or Snelgrove now) then take. the 'Margaret colony' over to that hive brood box and all and paper unite it - much safer IMHO.

 

[BeeJuice]

You could always (once they have stopped making QC's in the Q- colony)reduce the Q- colony back down to the original brood box (no need for a Demarree or Snelgrove now) then take. the 'Margaret colony' over to that hive brood box and all and paper unite it - much safer IMHO.

jenkinsbrynmair, that is a brilliant suggestion. I appreciate you taking the time to think though what (to me at least) seems like a very complicated problem.

How long would you expect it to take before the Q- colony stops making Queen Cells? Would that be when they have no eggs/grubbs to make into QCs?

I take it then that it is OK to leave a colony Q- for a week or so?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

jenkinsbrynmair, that is a brilliant suggestion. I appreciate you taking the time to think though what (to me at least) seems like a very complicated problem.

How long would you expect it to take before the Q- colony stops making Queen Cells? Would that be when they have no eggs/grubbs to make into QCs?

I take it then that it is OK to leave a colony Q- for a week or so?

once they've ran out of larvae to make QC's then it is safe to unite - a week or two is no problem to leave them