One of this year hives (which came from package bees) swarmed on us. Luckily we caught the swarm with the queen. After about 4 to 5 weeks we checked the hive that did not have the queen and no eggs were present. We took the swarmed and combined them back to the hive. We checked the hive again today and found 12 supercedure cells in the hive and the queen herself. Also lots of eggs, larvae, and capped brood were present. Being it's getting a little late in the season, do you think that this hive could possibly be queenless by the end of the season? Your feedback would be greatly appreciated :)
You may want to bee looking for a very late season queen if anyone has any leftovers.
If you've got supercedure cells (not just cups) why not let them just supercede? Eggs are a great sign that they will take care of it.
Scott
Quote from: hardwood on September 06, 2010, 07:49:25 PM
If you've got supercedure cells (not just cups) why not let them just supercede? Eggs are a great sign that they will take care of it.
Scott
I fear it may be too late in the season for a queen to hatch to be ready for winter. I'm not really sure when exactly the drones start getting kicked out in my area. Also have to take in consideration from when the queen hatches, get's properly mated, starts laying eggs and they begin to hatch. Thoughts anybody?
I know your winters are waaaayyy different than mine but I think I would still let them do their thing. Are there a lot of bees in there now? As long as you still have drones flying I think you have a respectable chance. Don't forget to feed!
Scott
I know that most of the drones are getting run out here in north Georgia. But we have not had the honey flow for a while and everything is starting to dry up for fall.
Glad I'm not alone. I'm on the E End of Long Island, NY, and same thing just happened to me. The hive is abuzz, a whole super full of brood and eggs (she's v busy) and 2 capped and one uncapped queen cells. I'm feeling the desire to pinch them, since it's unlikely that the queenlets will find boys to mate with this late in the season. But what actually happens - who kills the old queen anyway? The new one? Once she starts laying or once she hatches? Oi vei. HELPPPP
You could pull the queen and a few frames of bees and do a temporary split. If a new queen fails to materialize in the old hive,recombine them.Or snuff the old queen and combine if the new queen is a good layer.
Great advice Ken!
Scott
I see them kicking the drones out here in MA now.
there is several points in your little story that are difficult for me to follow. perhaps more so for me since I cannot view directly the hive in question to answer a few basic questions like resources and population???
for example...
After about 4 to 5 weeks we checked the hive that did not have the queen and no eggs were present.
tecumseh:
you combined the swarm with an existing hive just about at the point where a laying queen might have appeared.
or this..
We checked the hive again today and found 12 supercedure cells
tecumseh:
that is a lot of supercedure cells at this time of the year??? what makes you think they are supercedure cells?
if they are supercedure cell unless you can get a laying queen in the hive quickly more than likely the hive will dwindle away over the winter months. or if the hive should survive the winter quite like it will turn up next spring as a drone laying queen. at this point in time (and not knowing your season) even a laying queen with little or no time to rear one or two rounds of young bees prior to the winter setting in may mean the hive is history anyway.
good luck....
Quote from: hardwood on September 06, 2010, 09:10:56 PM
I know your winters are waaaayyy different than mine but I think I would still let them do their thing. Are there a lot of bees in there now? As long as you still have drones flying I think you have a respectable chance. Don't forget to feed!
Scott
Yes, their are a lot of bees in the hive right now. The hive is being fed as well. I'm not exactly sure when the drines get kicked out in my region though.
I'm in the same situation, well, sorta but worse. I did a cutout, two colonies, from the same wall. Found the upper queen but not the lower. Combined but they balled and killed her. Now I have a capped queen cell. She should emerge in a few days as it was uncapped last week. Anyways, I see ZERO drones from my hives. I really hope there are a few around so she can mate!
There is a feral colony living in someone's house less than 1 mile away. Hopefully those colonies there have some drones that will make their way over to my yard.
That stinks montauk. I heard somewhere that their was such a high demand of packages this year that many of them went out with last year queens.
i don't know when the drones get evicted for the winter, but i do know that i have capped drone brood in my hive at this very moment. so i'm guessing they still have a little while left.
I just went through my hives to assess winter stores and set feeders and was surprised to find two hives with capped and uncapped swarm cells. I started nucs with both because I've had issues with queens this year and really hate to give up the opportunity to rear two more. I figure I can combine back if it doesn't work.
Yes, some of my hives are starting to move out their drones, but some hives still have capped drones. Obviously, not all the hives are attending the same community meetings! Anyway, I hope it works.