viridens
Field Bee
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2010
- Messages
- 772
- Reaction score
- 97
- Location
- GB
- Hive Type
- warre
- Number of Hives
- 4. Experimenting with Warres after 30 years of Nationals
I collected a late weak swarm which turned out to be queenless when hived. I gave them a frame with eggs and they raised a queen, hatched about 3 weeks ago. During all this time they have been decimated (and dismantled - wasps leaving the hive with 1/2 bees) by wasp attacks, which are unusually bad here this year. From covering 3 frames, they are down to a small cluster, queen & maybe 150 workers, and I am feeding them. My other hives are at good strength & coping.
With all the wasp damage i'm sure any eggs or brood will have been taken, so I can't be sure whether this new queen has mated. So the question is, do I just crush this queen & call it a day, or is there some heroic rescue I can try to save her & regenerate this hive?
With all the wasp damage i'm sure any eggs or brood will have been taken, so I can't be sure whether this new queen has mated. So the question is, do I just crush this queen & call it a day, or is there some heroic rescue I can try to save her & regenerate this hive?
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