Tiny Drone Laying Queen..

[Millet]

I have explained about this elsewhere but here goes.
I spotted a Tiny drone laying Queen today in the brood box but i lost her on the second attempt to find her ( she is smaller than the worker bees) ..

I will try again to find her tomorrow so i can remove her and unite a colony with a good laying Queen colony..

My question is... if i cant find her for love nor money can i take the hive away from it original spot... then remove six drawn frames and shake all the bees into the original box in a new location.

Next put the drawn frames and new ones on the original spot in another brood to get all the flying bees back to the original spot and unite with the good Queen colony on the same day.. ? .
Thank you.
Steve.

 

[Podilia]

I guess there are 99% that in the united colony that drone laying queen will be killed. So I would have united them using a newspaper between those colonies.
Your "hard" method also should help but it needs more time and work.

 

[Millet]

Thank you Podilia and every one else who ..

 

[pargyle]

Thank you Podilia and every one else who ..

Well .. there you go !

I would move the hive well away .. shake off a few frames from it so there are no bees on them. Put those frames in another box on the original site so that all the fliers (The foragers are what you want) go back to the original site. Following day air freshener squirt and combine thsee foragers with the queen right hive you want to bolster.

The original hive will then only have half the bees it had and you should be able to spot the queen (lots of tricks on here for queen finding).

If there is no worker brood in the original hive and your queen is only laying drone eggs give it a couple of days to make sure she is still only laying drones and shake whatever bees are left out on the grass and let them find their way into another hive .. some of them may cluster round the queen if she's still there and you can have a look for her or just let them get one with it.

 

[JWF]

shake whatever bees are left out on the grass and let them find their way into another hive .. some of them may cluster round the queen if she's still there and you can have a look for her or just let them get one with it.

I did that to a laying worker hive last weekend and there's still a small cluster of a couple of hundred or so bees clustered under the OMF of an adjacent hive. Most made there way inside, I think, but these lot are stuck it seems.

 

[Beefriendly]

Well .. there you go !

I would move the hive well away .. shake off a few frames from it so there are no bees on them.

Difficult queen to spot.... Miss her on one of those shaken frames .... where is she going to fly to.....mmmm, let me think.
Me I'd do one of two things. Both probably hopelessly wrong
a) Have another look for her.
b) Just move the hive and replace it with an empty one with a few frames in. (If you had a second apiary you could move a queen right hive to that position). Many of the bees will, after a few days, return to old site. The ones that re-orientate to the new will remain. But there will be much fewer bees. Look again...Still can't find her....repeat the process.

I would suggest the shake and 2 frames below QX method, but as she is small the qx will present no blockage to her.

 

[pargyle]

Difficult queen to spot.... Miss her on one of those shaken frames .... where is she going to fly to.....mmmm, let me think.

You'd dest read my post again I think....

Frames are shaken off and used in the new hive on the old site ... more likelihood of the foragers returning to familiar frames in a box on the old site. Then much as I suggested is what you said ...

 

[Beefriendly]

You'd dest read my post again I think....

Frames are shaken off and used in the new hive on the old site ... more likelihood of the foragers returning to familiar frames in a box on the old site. Then much as I suggested is what you said ...

. shake off a few frames from it so there are no bees on them. Put those frames in another box on the original site

And if the queen is on one of those frames where is she going to fly to?

 

[pargyle]

And if the queen is on one of those frames where is she going to fly to?

What bit of 'shake ALL the bees off the frames' did you not understand ?

I'll try and simplifly what I said ..

REMOVE ALL THE BEES FROM THREE FRAMES and transfer them to an otherwise empty hive preferably a Nuc (transfer the FRAMES not the BEES) on the original hive site. This is where the fliers will return to ... and you can then combine these foragers with another queen right hive.

Reducing the number of bees in the original hive and fewer frames makes it easier to find the queen.

If you still can't find the queen and she's still laying drones ... shake them out.

Not rocket science is it ?

 

[Millet]

Well .. there you go !

I would move the hive well away .. shake off a few frames from it so there are no bees on them. Put those frames in another box on the original site so that all the fliers (The foragers are what you want) go back to the original site. Following day air freshener squirt and combine thsee foragers with the queen right hive you want to bolster.

The original hive will then only have half the bees it had and you should be able to spot the queen (lots of tricks on here for queen finding).

If there is no worker brood in the original hive and your queen is only laying drone eggs give it a couple of days to make sure she is still only laying drones and shake whatever bees are left out on the grass and let them find their way into another hive .. some of them may cluster round the queen if she's still there and you can have a look for her or just let them get one with it.

Give me another tip because that did not work neither has anything else upto now.

 

[pargyle]

Give me another tip because that did not work neither has anything else upto now.

Well ... as I told you what I would do at 12.50pm today you've not really given it much time for anything to happen ...

You don't NEED to find the queen if you do what I suggested .,,,

 

[Millet]

If this Minute Drone Laying Queen is still Alive and i can not find her tomorrow they will be dumped in a hedge 50 mile away as i simply can not be bothered with the hassle especially when i need the boxes for more productive purposes.

 

[Millet]

Well ... as I told you what I would do at 12.50pm today you've not really given it much time for anything to happen ...

You don't NEED to find the queen if you do what I suggested .,,,

Already tried that you crank..Yesterday before you tried to educate pork.

 

[pargyle]

Already tried that you crank..Yesterday before you tried to educate pork.

You are an exceedingly rude and ignorant person ... why ask for advice if all you wish to do is disparage it when it is offered in good faith ? If you don't tell us what you have done then what chance has anyone of giving you any advice.


As fot tipping them out 50 miles away ? Totally irresponsible - just creating a problem for someone else - I'm surprised you don't just put a cupful of petrol in there ..

Call yourself a beekeeper ? I think not....

Waste of space ... do what you want - I can see why nobody bothered to respond to your original post.

 

[Erichalfbee]

You can’t just throw the bees away. That’s terrible. You have to fix it even if you are just shaking them out to find new homes amongst your other bees.

 

[Beefriendly]

If this Minute Drone Laying Queen is still Alive and i can not find her tomorrow they will be dumped in a hedge 50 mile away .

Wind up merchant.....

 

[Erichalfbee]

Wind up merchant.....

The thing is sometimes you can’t tell.
It’s still upsetting

 

[Millet]

You can’t just throw the bees away. That’s terrible. You have to fix it even if you are just shaking them out to find new homes amongst your other bees.

I can't shake them out at the moment as the Queen will head back to the original position where i want to unite with a good laying Queen colony.. however i could forget about uniting them and shake the bees out in the middle of all my hives, that would give them six options to beg there way in, my only concern about doing this though is this colony was close to another colony that has a virgin waiting to get laying..will the bees in the virgin colony kill the Drone laying Queen if it tries to gain access.
Thanks.
Steve.

 

[Millet]

Wind up merchant.....

 

[Beefriendly]

The thing is sometimes you can’t tell.

The mark of a good wind up.....
It's like when the black bee aficionados tell us their bees are naturally adapted to the local micro-climate. I can never work out whether this is a wind up or simple stupidity ....I added the smiley so you know I'm not serious. Or am I?