Keeping queens in my hives is a neverending tasks.
The fall flow is just starting here. I have plenty of supers on my hives and they are still backfilling their broodnests. Several are queenless. It is too overcast for me to see eggs, but I gave 2 hives frames of young brood from other hives. I hope there were also eggs on the frames but could not see that well.
Should I take some of the backfilled Brood frames and replace with foundation ( I have no drawn comb)?
Will that open the brood nest up ? I can not believe how hard it is to keep queens in my hives.
You could try rotating the frames(honey) up and keep replacing them with empty frames. Before doing anything though you need to check the frames when you can see properly
Quote from: malabarchillin on October 05, 2008, 12:17:01 PM
Keeping queens in my hives is a neverending tasks.
Chemical build up in the combs are contributing big time (IMO) to queen loss/survivability/supercedure. Some hives are continually superceding their queens trying to get an acceptable one. It can, and will continue, to be a major problem until beekeepers quit using chemicals inside the hive. The hive already gets the comb contaminated enough from outside sources, why make matters worse by adding them directly to the hive.
QuoteThe fall flow is just starting here. I have plenty of supers on my hives and they are still backfilling their broodnests. Several are queenless. It is too overcast for me to see eggs, but I gave 2 hives frames of young brood from other hives. I hope there were also eggs on the frames but could not see that well.
In the fall backfilling of brood nest is desired, it adds critical stores to the hive for overwintering. Also, just because there are no eggs doesn't necessarially mean your hive is queenless. Many queens quit laying due to season (winter), dearth, drought, or vermin (mites etc) at various times of the year.
QuoteShould I take some of the backfilled Brood frames and replace with foundation ( I have no drawn comb)?
Will that open the brood nest up ? I can not believe how hard it is to keep queens in my hives.
That is one way of doing it. Doing exactly as you discribe is a very good way to keep the brood nest open to prohibit swarming in the spring and summer. The things to remember are that the outside frame on each side is always a storage frame, the 2nd frame in is also in many hives, so b y putting the new frames in the 3 & 8 location they are being placed on each side of the brood chamber, keeping it open, and bees busy building comb in the brood chamber don't usually swarm.
Adding a frame of brood from another hive is always a good check on hive status, queen wise, and helps boost population. Jsst remember that if the bees don't build queen cells doesn't mean you failed, an idle queen is an idle queen (see above) and not eggs doesn't always mean a queenless condition, which is why you test with brood frames. If brood frames are introduced to a queenless hive, prior to its going layingworker, then it should build queen cells, not building them is more indicitive of an idle queen.