on thursday i took a frame of capped brood with also eggs on the frame and put it in a queen castle, I checked today and the still had not built a queen cell although i did see a few emergency cones built on the frame with nothing in them will the bees make a queen cell like today or tomorrow if everything goes right when the eggs turn into larvae
If you know you started with eggs, after 4 days with no action try again. I'd check them tomorrow and if no queen cells, add another frame with eggs/young larvae. Remember that you need to give the bees enough time to realize they are queenless. To make a "walk away split" it's best to isolate them from the queen for a day before adding the eggs/larvae.
Scott
Queen castles also work well when you have several capped queen cells in your hives already. Pull out one and put it in a section of the queen castle. Take your best hive and pull the queen out to make them build new queen cells. Then you pull them out and replace the queen. I think you get better queen cells that way. But both ways will work.
yea its getting a lilttle late in the season that i didnt want to disturb my bigger hive to muchbut yea tomorrow i will add more eggs and brood to the castle if nothing has happened the temperature is 97 degrees today so i still have some time to mess with the bees before it is to late would you suggest putting my older queen in the castle and having my larger hive produce a queen? also if i move my old queen over how long should i put her in a queen cage before i release her?
If you're splitting with the queen (a forced swarm is what we call it) take three frames of capped brood, a frame of honey/pollen and a frame of drawn comb if you have it and put them in a 5 frame nuc. You have to make sure that the mother colony has eggs/very young larvae with which to make a new queen. It's a little late in the year to be making splits so be prepared to baby them through winter...we even need to do that here in FL. In early spring we may make weaker splits with only two frames of brood but that's a rarity and would be pushing your luck right now.
Scott
remember if they make a queen it will probley be laying around the first of NOV-frost on the pumpkin around here
cold syrup and the problems that go with it-at this time of year i would buy a mated queen and get a round of brood by the first of NOV-somthing to think about-RDY-B
so i added more eggs and young larvae hopefully they will make a queen out of it.
do u have a mated queen rdy u can part with?
No such luck -there are many outfits in your area-try arowsmith-RDY-B
530-527-2770
15121 mccoy road red bluff
if i dont have a queen cell by friday i will buy a mated queen, it was 108 degrees outside today so i have awhile before fall and winter begins.
[A while before winter]----If the queen cell gets mated and she starts laying on schedule -it will be start of Nov-
the eggs she lays are going to start hatching-start of DEC-give or take-thats the problem -or else we would all
be splting our hives atleast three ways -to late for that-RDY-B
I'll be making another round of split this weekend (planing on 120) but that's here and we are in a heavy flow from the Brazilian pepper, I have no idea what your climate is like :)
Scott
108? You don't need a queen, they need some A/C. Are you feeding them in the queen castle? They have to have a lot of food to make a queen, that is why people start queen cells in a strong hive before pulling them.
Quote from: hardwood on September 30, 2010, 08:46:06 PM
I'll be making another round of split this weekend (planing on 120) but that's here and we are in a heavy flow from the Brazilian pepper, I have no idea what your climate is like :)
Scott
last week tripel digit heat-absolutley no flow-yellow jackets and Robing is RAMPED- :lol:
wheather is turning this week back on track -for the season-I took my winter loses in August - boxes are full of bees keeping my eye on almond payday- ;) RDY-B
i cant wait till next year to have a payday
well i have two capped queen cells in there on the brood frame I put in first, i must have missed seeing the cells. so i will just let them do their thing. and in about 2 weeks have a laying queen if all goes well.
We wait a full 3 weeks after the planned date of emergence to check on the new queen. Sometimes checking too early can stress the bees and they may abscond.
Scott
thanks for the suggested longer wait time hardwood, after putting work into building them i wouldn't want them to leave on me. if this goes well i will be off to a good start next season. feeding kind of stinks but i think it will put me more ahead then i would have been by starting next year with a single nuc.
Best of luck!
Scott
Quote from: ronwhite3030 on October 01, 2010, 05:06:31 PM
well i have two capped queen cells in there on the brood frame I put in first, i must have missed seeing the cells. so i will just let them do their thing. and in about 2 weeks have a laying queen if all goes well.
whats happening :lol: _RDY-B
well both of the 2 frame nucs in the queen castle have queens and honey and pollen but no laying yet there are still some original capped brood on the frames so hopefully she starts laying soon or i will try and take some brood from one of my other hive to help them until she starts laying. they have become much more calm since they have a queen now which is nice.