I came out of the winter with 2 hives. Turns out one is queenless. I put a frame of eggs in to see if it was queenless, and by the time I got back to the hive to check (2.5 weeks later) there was an open full size queen cell.
So there could be a queen in there. However, there are no drones yet anywhere. I'm not sure what will happen to a virgin queen who doesn't mate withing 1/2/3/? weeks of emerging. Is she at risk of being chronically virgin, and becoming a drone-layer, or will she keep flying until she eventually mates?
At any rate, I want to combine the hives. With the possibility of a virgin queen who may never mate now, I thought I would do a shake out rather than a newspaper combine. I don't want to risk losing my good queen and wrecking my only good hive now though.
Any advice? If there is a virgin queen in the bad hive, will she try to go into the good hive along with the workers?
Thanks.
Grid.
the biggest problem i see with a shake out is that if there is a queen in there, the bees will go where she goes. if she lands on the ground, they will clump on the ground. if she flies off, they will go with her.
i think i'd put another frame of eggs in the hive and see what happens. if they start queen cells again, you'll know there is not a queen. if they don't, you can look for her again. if they start queen cells and you don't want to let them requeen, you can combine right away and there should be no problem.
Thanks Kathyp. :)
Grid.