Unite complications

[BrianO]

Hi

Any advice welcome.

Proposed unite, opened hive yesterday ( thought Q- ) that was going to be united to found sealed QC had obviously missed.

Should have broken it down as planned unite with Q Plus Nuc today, anyway did not and opened today to remove sealed QC and Unite. QC had hatched and as on double brood had not time or inclination to go through every frame again to try find her. ( Did not lose bees as seemed to be same numbers and had old queen clipped and marked so probably just landed on grass outside hive and Bees eventually returned ).

Have good laying queen this years mated in Nuc, clipped and marked, if I unite with hive with newly emerged queen ... likely results ? fight one dies, maybe clipped and marked new queen which would be a loss.

Also maybe too late to expect newly emerged queen to mate sucessfully ?

Thanks

 

[Islandbees]

Hi BrianO. I'm certainly no expert but have asked a similar question to this recently. I was told it is likely the new VQ would kill your current Q as she is more agile. I'm interested to see peoples views as if my VQ doesn't mate soon I'll be in the same boat as you pretty soon.

 

[Erichalfbee]

If you want to unite two colonies each with a queen you will have to remove one.
Not too late for new queen to mate

 

[beeno]

Hi BrianO,
As above plus how do you know you have only missed one? Better put your ear to the hive and listen out for piping!

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

There are some (but not many) times when you M U S T find the queen (unfortunately) and this is one. Lots of ways on here and in my experience, do not be afraid to "sieve" a colony through a QE. It seems awful but they get over it and few if any bees die.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hi BrianO,
As above plus how do you know you have only missed one? Better put your ear to the hive and listen out for piping!

yup - that always works.

?​

For what I'm not sure

 

[Erichalfbee]

yup - that always works.

?​

For what I'm not sure

Sigh..........
I must agree JBM
I haven't a clue what that means
Equally the OP who asked for help might have to resort to a Christmas song for that one.

 

[Hawklord]

Hi BrianO,
As above plus how do you know you have only missed one? Better put your ear to the hive and listen out for piping!

Is that Reverend Green, in the conservatory, with the lead piping?

 

[enrico]

I would be very tempted to make two hives. You say they are on double brood, split it. Now you only have one brood box for each hive to look through for your Virgin. When you find her, add your new queen to the other. You can always recombine if you need to but.....
E

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Proposed unite, opened hive yesterday ( thought Q- ) that was going to be united to found sealed QC had obviously missed.

Should have broken it down as planned

Yup - as I've said it before - the only time to take action on finding a QC is Immediately, but there you are, these things happen to us all, it's far from the end of the world - you now have a queen in the colony, you didn't before.

Have good laying queen this years mated in Nuc, clipped and marked, if I unite with hive with newly emerged queen ... likely results ? fight one dies, maybe clipped and marked new queen which would be a loss.

Also maybe too late to expect newly emerged queen to mate sucessfully ?

Thanks

uniting two Q+ colonies is never a good idea - you could lose the queen you wanted to keep or worse, both and end up with an emergency QC and another fortnight before there's a chance of a virgin in the hive with autumn looming closer.
It's still only August, the time when the bees think is good for making new queens and getting them mated in time for winter so no real worry yet. have two supersedures on the go ATM (emerged in the last few days) and a swarmed colony with a newly emerged virgin in (don't ask!!) and I ain't panicking yet.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Is that Reverend Green, in the conservatory, with the lead piping?

or is it hogmanay already?