Uniting nuc failure?

[sean-a]

Tricky this bee keeping lark!

I had a very small nuc without a queen which I managed to introduce a queen to sucessfully...not laying but not killed by the bees either.

The nuc was under attack by wasps so I tried to unite this with a hive with a dronelaying queen.

I moved the nuc into a new hive and replaced my dronelaying hive with this new hive. I then moved the other hive about 30 feet away, closed the entrance and tipped all of the bees off onto the grass. I brushed all of the bees from the combs and then moved the combs to the new hive...

All the bees migrated back to the new hive.....so far so good....
except my queen seemed to have disappeared when I had a peek last night.

The wasps were back first thing this morning too.....

Is there any way to recover the situation?

 

[Cazza]

1. Recovering the situation
a: wasps -reduce the entrance, consider moving the hive a few feet.
b: queen - are you sure you have lost your queen? You could add a test frame to see if they make QC's.

2. Hindsight

If you were sure the queen was a drone layer and not laying workers, then if it had been me, I would have combined the nuc to the hive after culling the drone laying queen. This is gentler than shaking out the bees.

I also would have waited before disturbing the hive again to "peek."

Why wasn't the new queen laying?

Cazza

 

[oliver90owner]

Under attack means little. It can often happen and the attackers are repelled. It is only if the wasps get into, and out of the hive after feeding, that more trouble will follow.

And do you have wasp traps around your colonies?

 

[sean-a]

Under attack means little. It can often happen and the attackers are repelled. It is only if the wasps get into, and out of the hive after feeding, that more trouble will follow.

And do you have wasp traps around your colonies?

I suspect that it might have been a laying worker as I could not see a queen either.

Wasps seem to be entering the hive with impunity.
Surrounded by wasp traps too which are killing a fair few.

 

[oliver90owner]

Now the question arises as to which came first, the wasps or the traps?

Not clever to attract wasps in numbers to the vicinity of hives. A few wasps 'nosing' around and being repelled by the bees is one thing; attracting more wasps with non-totally-effective traps is entirely another. You may wish to consider if, or not, your actions were possibly a contributing factor to your present predicament.

 

[Cazza]

I suspect that it might have been a laying worker as I could not see a queen either.

Wasps seem to be entering the hive with impunity.
Surrounded by wasp traps too which are killing a fair few.

If laying workers then I see why you shook the hive out.

re wasps see other recent threads re high efficiency traps (if you feel you MUST trap.)
Cazza

 

[sean-a]

Found her!
I found the queen....the blob of green has all but disappeared and just the tiniest spec remaining.....pretty pleased that she is still there and has survived the introduction....no sign of eggs yet though!

Phew!