Hey everyone,
I finally got back into the game after being slimed out thanks to the varroa build up in January. I got 2x NUCs, but both were too aggressive for the yard and I replaced the queens on the 11th Sep. all was going well and unfortunately I missed the opportunity to put the supers on them over the weekend. The 2nd hive swarmed on me yesterday morning (naturally the day I was set to get into them) and it was too high to recapture. The other hive I believe swarmed the day before whilst I was away
I have inspected both, removed a lot of the capped drone brood as there were soo many drones already I was concerned about food and varroa for what is left of the hives. No sign of the newer calm QBs, so I’ve left the queen cells in there for them to hopefully start over themselves. One hive had lots of capped brood and larvae, the other had sporadic brood and I couldn’t really see any larvae.
My question after this diatribe, is will the existing drones be the genetics of the previous QB, or will the newly hatched (hopefully) QB have the genetics from the QB I replaced and those aren’t affected by the older drones should they mate with her?
I’m wondering if I have to replace with another set of purchased QBs. Can’t really afford to buy more atm, but need calmer bees if I’m going to be able to keep them 
Thanks in advance for your expertise as always!
Cheers
Craig
Congrats on getting back in the game, Craig.
Last season was challenging in our area (I’m a bit north of you, on Bells Line of Road).
There’s a bit to unpack with your situation.
Requeening for calmer genetics was the logical move. Unfortunately, I’ve seen many new queens quickly replaced, swarm or abscond this last year. Varroa and the treatments have messed up “normal” behaviour, so we’re seeing the evolution of new norms.
Drones take 24days to emerge, then about 12days to mature. After that, they head out to Drone Congregation Areas (DCA) to mate with a Queen. Drones are welcome in any hive, so they lodge overnight elsewhere and continue to DCAs further from their birthplace. The mature drones in your hives most likely come from another area. This ensures the lowest chance of mating between siblings, because the new queen goes to the closest DCA she can find.
I have a theory that our bees know there is a severe shortage of bees with all the feral colonies now collapsed. In an effort to restock the environment to ensure queens have enough drones and more importantly, genetically diverse drones with which to mate, they are swarming like crazy.
You have one colony with a functioning queen. Transfer a frame of eggs and young larvae over to the other hive. If they are queenless, they will make emergency Queens from the new larvae. I would also shake in some nurse bees from the strong colony to tend the brood. All the bees in this hive will be aging and don’t make for good nurses.
Then, be patient and wait. Give it a couple of weeks for either the existing young queen to start laying or for the emergency queens to be capped. You’ll either see brood or capped queen cells. If neither of those, then the bees are getting very old and may be better merged with your strong hive until you’re ready to split.
Good luck and keep us posted on how things develop.
Mike
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Yeah it’s been an interesting journey, thx for sharing your thoughts and knowledge. I spent a long time searching for the QB and given the low numbers I’m pretty confident that she is gone.
Both hives have QB cells already, so would it still be necessary to add a frame? I won’t get a chance until Sunday and wondering if it’ll be too late by then anyway? Or should I still go ahead based on balancing the buildup of the colonies of both?
Thx for the info on the drones- I wasn’t aware that they are accepted by any hives- they certainly have it good (until they mateanywayha!)
Cheers
Craig
If there’s already QCs with larvae or capped, just wait. The other hive has probably swarmed or swarmed again, hence the swarm cells. Again, just wait for them to emerge, mature and mate. See what happens.
Mike.
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I’ll share an update when I have something worth sharing
Thanks mate 