Hi again
The journey continues…
My hive that swarmed did a 2nd smaller swarm a couple of weeks after the first (I caught both fyi, 1st is thriving and 2nd gave to a fellow keeper). At the time of the first swarm there were 2 capped queen cells, so I chose to leave both and let them do what they do. Then yesterday I finally got the chance to inspect (about 3-4wks after 2nd swarm) only to find them queenless (no brood and no larvae and none of the frames I replaced have had new comb put on them). They have pollen and honey stores and there is 1 capped queen cell.
My question is should I buy a queen or see if this new queen survives? I don’t want to lose them altogether?
Other Q is, should I give them a frame of brood from my other hive?
3rd Q (getting greedy now!) should I remove the super even though it has capped and uncapped honey all through it? It’s roughly 50/50 capped to uncapped so no good to harvest I’m assuming
Thanks in advance for your advice
Cheers
Craig
Hey Craig,
The joys of apiculture!
For Q1 - if the queen successfully mated and returned, she would be laying by now so your assumption of queenless is probably correct. The bees are aging by the day and they need fresh generations to replace them.
The queen cell might make it or she might not. It’s always a gamble. I suggest hedging your bets by donating a frame of capped brood and a frame containing eggs and larvae. This answers Q2 as well. The capped brood will emerge soon and will be your new nurse bees. The eggs and larvae offer the bees another opportunity to produce a new queen and extend the production of new bees over the next few weeks.
Of course, you can still buy a mated queen to speed up the process. Keep an eye on the queen cell or remove it, though. If she emerges before you introduce the mated queen, they could kill the new queen.
Q3 - it depends on whether there are enough bees to guard the space against pests like small hive beetle. If the extra bees from donated frames aren’t enough to cover the frames, I would remove the super or donate more frames. If there’s a flow on and the donor hive is strong, they can afford to donate a frame every 10days. This doubles as swarm management.
Most of all, enjoy the process and log the actions and results. Half the fun of beekeeping is learning from the bees.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike
A million thanks for the thorough reply! I will give them a frame of brood this week and bet on this queen surviving the gauntlet. Aside from being queenless, they still seem okay, so here’s hoping. I’ll post an update once I have something to share. Thanks again for your information.
There is such a great community of “Flowies” on here (yes I really did just make that up ha!)
Cheers