Cool. Thanks for all the advice @Dawn_SD and @Dee. I am going to make the split tomorrow arvo. Wish me luck! (hope I can find the queen…)
Huge amounts of luck to you, plus hugs to you and bee-like hugs to your bees. May they do the right thing! 
1 Like
Best of luck.
Keep a close eye on that nuked queen. If the bees then build more supersedure cells where she is then she will be a dead loss. You might as well cut your losses, kill her, put the bees back (you should be able to just tip them in to their old box and put the frame back) and hope the new one gets mated…or as I said, get a new queen.
One thing I forgot. You need to add a few nurse bees to your split.
1 Like
Sting, I’m worried for your bees. How many hives have you got? If only one or two then you are taking the risk with a late split that neither will come through the winter.
Edited to say …realised after posting that your insurance nuc would be re-united anyway. Still you would have a brood break of at least three weeks raising your own queen.
Hi Dee,
Thanks for your concern and advice. I’ve only got the one hive and look after my son’s primary school hive (community hive) as well.
I’m just taking a pragmatic approach with mine as it was a little swarm when caught and the queens have been inconsistent… Poor genetics. So, I’m going to try these manipulations and hope for the best for now.
I bought a replacement queen a couple of months ago trying to improve the genetics, but there was a sneaky, aggressive Virgin hiding in a corner somewhere and she killed my investment!!! This is my present problematic queen. So, reckon I’ve spent enough money on these girls for now : )
I love bee keeping and thank Flow for getting me back into it. I’ve prepped the chicken run for three hives come next season. So, hopefully there will be a few swarms flying round to scoop up then. I should have the third replacement Flow hive by the too… But that’s another story.
Regards, Paul
She’s not that poor, as far as I am concerned, but the colony keep putting out superceedure cells. the old queen will keep laying in the nuc box, and if this fails, she can go back into the main hive and I’ll winter them over. The helpful ladies above have just suggested that she might not make it over winter. And that is just the way it goes. I have explained why I don’t want to spend anymore money on this colony.
I tried this last year with a queen…she was a slow layer I think. The colony made a superceedure cell…I made a nuc out of one of them and it went on to fill a hive and is now a thriving colony. However, I found that the original colony tried to superceed again…so in the end I put the queen and the bees which were left in a nuc. They died over the winter…which was stupid as I could have combined them with another colony and zapped the queen. Sentimentality made me give her a chance…but the experience has taught me that the colony must be healthy in all aspects…including the queen. Next time…I will combine or provide a laying queen.
1 Like
If the hive wants to replace a queen its time to start listening to the hive.
I have banked the queen but usually end up pinching her for some reason. The bees are quite smart in this regard. Don’t bother now, just a quick pinch and let the bees get on with it.
Cheers
Rob.
I bought some new queens last year. One became a drone layer but I gave them a frame of bias and they made a new queen. The other was the slow layer. The third queen is a buckfast and did well last year despite the appalling weather she filled 2 brood boxes and they managed to collect enough nectar to feed themselves for the winter. I have ordered one new queen this year…a carniolan to replace an old queen…who if she survived the winter will retire to a nuc…hopefully to make a few more queens.
I liked what @Rmcpb had to say in his first line. I also liked the article.
My two cents - my homebrewing friend has had a hive in his black walnut tree for just over 8 years. The hole is no bigger than the mouse you are using on your computer. Needless to say, we cannot perform any inspections or remove honey or check for mites or beetles or extra queen cells.
Mother nature has taken care of her own. Don’t over think or over-read toooo much into what nature has provided for thousands of years. The hive will produce those extra queen cells as a ‘just in case’ scenario.
Just my two cents.
They will and if the colony is strong enough they will produce afterswarms and you will lose all your foraging force and get no honey