wondervet
House Bee
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2010
- Messages
- 102
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- west yorkshire
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 6
Dear All,
Advice would be much appreciated on upcoming re-arrangement.
Planning to requeen our badly behaved but prolific colony by killing HM and uniting with a colony with a queen of this year who came into lay about 3 weeks ago now.
The bad colony are in an out apiary, the good colony are at home. The united colony needs to be in the out apiary.
bad colony currently post-demaree. Nat BB on bottom with HM, QE, then 2 supers, then old BB on top.
good colony with young queen are in a single nat BB with no supers.
From what I've read I believe that uniting the colonies gives the best chance of successful acceptance of new Q (please correct me if wrong).
options I can see for the unification after killing old Q are:
1) new Q BB on bottom, newspaper, then 2 BBs from bad colony, QE then supers. I'm just concerned that by the time I've done this rearrangement (can't lift 2 BBs and 2 supers in one go so will have to dismantle) the bad lot will be a boiling mass of unhappy bees and will have more risk of killing new Q (even with newspaper etc). Also the bad bees will be returning home and flying in the front door straight into the new BB.
2) 2 'bad' BBs on bottom, newspaper, new BB, more newspaper, QE, supers. They'll still be a bit unhappy after this re-jig but at least the bad'uns won't be arriving through the entrance as well.
3) bad BB, QE, supers, bad BB, newspaper + QE, new BB. So basically drop new Bb onto the bad colony as it stands. This will require least re-arrangement of the hive but I'm concerned that they'll make queen cells in the bottom box as the new queen will be a long way away up top. I suppose I can go back in a week later and zap them. Or I could unite them without killing the bad queen in the bottom box, let them sort themselves out and then kill her and rearrange boxes a week or 2 later.
Maybe there are other possibilities I've overlooked.
Also, another issue, is it best to kill old queen a day or 2 previous to uniting or OK to do it same time?
Would be very grateful for some words of experience, I've been puzzling over this for a week or 2 and it's a bit beyond what the books cover.
many thanks once again (thanks to all advice over this season now got 5 colonies on the go and no swarms lost....yet)
Roger
Advice would be much appreciated on upcoming re-arrangement.
Planning to requeen our badly behaved but prolific colony by killing HM and uniting with a colony with a queen of this year who came into lay about 3 weeks ago now.
The bad colony are in an out apiary, the good colony are at home. The united colony needs to be in the out apiary.
bad colony currently post-demaree. Nat BB on bottom with HM, QE, then 2 supers, then old BB on top.
good colony with young queen are in a single nat BB with no supers.
From what I've read I believe that uniting the colonies gives the best chance of successful acceptance of new Q (please correct me if wrong).
options I can see for the unification after killing old Q are:
1) new Q BB on bottom, newspaper, then 2 BBs from bad colony, QE then supers. I'm just concerned that by the time I've done this rearrangement (can't lift 2 BBs and 2 supers in one go so will have to dismantle) the bad lot will be a boiling mass of unhappy bees and will have more risk of killing new Q (even with newspaper etc). Also the bad bees will be returning home and flying in the front door straight into the new BB.
2) 2 'bad' BBs on bottom, newspaper, new BB, more newspaper, QE, supers. They'll still be a bit unhappy after this re-jig but at least the bad'uns won't be arriving through the entrance as well.
3) bad BB, QE, supers, bad BB, newspaper + QE, new BB. So basically drop new Bb onto the bad colony as it stands. This will require least re-arrangement of the hive but I'm concerned that they'll make queen cells in the bottom box as the new queen will be a long way away up top. I suppose I can go back in a week later and zap them. Or I could unite them without killing the bad queen in the bottom box, let them sort themselves out and then kill her and rearrange boxes a week or 2 later.
Maybe there are other possibilities I've overlooked.
Also, another issue, is it best to kill old queen a day or 2 previous to uniting or OK to do it same time?
Would be very grateful for some words of experience, I've been puzzling over this for a week or 2 and it's a bit beyond what the books cover.
many thanks once again (thanks to all advice over this season now got 5 colonies on the go and no swarms lost....yet)
Roger
