What to do from 3-4 weeks queenless

[ryan_220]

After my queen failed my fault on that my one hive has been queenless for around 30-36days and now i have managed to bump start it and now has a laying queen somewhere.

Did a quick inspection today to find eggs so new queen laying but 6 out of 11 frames are full of pollon/hunny. Thus limiting the laying space, so i have pulled 3 out and replaced with new wax.

The question is do i need to do it to the other frames or will the bees fix it them selfs over time ? My gut feeling to to juet keep pulling them out over a fue weeks and leave 2-3 frames left with pollon/hunny.

All the best Ryan

 

[Somerford]

Hi Ryan

What do you mean when you say 'bump start' ...introduced a new queen ? please let us have a few more details as if the hive was broodless you could have a laying worker....

or maybe a queen has hatched and mated and is laying ok - can you spot her ?
S

 

[ryan_220]

Hi Ryan

What do you mean when you say 'bump start' ...introduced a new queen ? please let us have a few more details as if the hive was broodless you could have a laying worker....

or maybe a queen has hatched and mated and is laying ok - can you spot her ?
S

I couldnt spot her as it was getting late, but there are alot of eggs so iam guess there is a queen around and they seem alot more settled now, i will find/check friday for the queen as i finish work early.

After i noticed the queen was dead/missing i knocked all queen cells but 2. But they failed to come of anything and the hive got even more waspy cold snap did not help. So i used a fream of eggs/lava from my other hive to bump start the hive with a queen or the chance to make one some 22-26 days ago. But have been queenless longer than that.

But after so long with no queen they seam to have made a little bit of a mess in the hive. with filling most of the brood frames with hunny/pollon so there is very little laying space for the queen.
Just wondering if iam doing the right thing or should i let them fix it but it seems faster this way.

 

[Roy S]

The pollen and honey will be used by the colony to raise new workers, so I'd leave it where it is, you're just giving them more work to do. I'd put all the frames of stores back, that way they dont need to draw foundation and they've got the stores that they will need to raise numbers.

We all at times have acted in what we think is the bees interest, but truth be known they they've got a good few million years headstart on us in knowing what works best for them