Yes I'm new to this so bare with me....I hived some wild bees about 40 days ago with a couple chunks of brood comb. I was sure I had gotten the queen since I had captured 90 percent of the hive. They took to my box well and started building a little comb then I realized the queen was not present. I ordered a queen and installed her yesterday but I fear I'm too late. The number of bees has dwindled down from about the size of a soccer ball to about 80 bees. Is there a chance they can keep my new queen alive long enough to get going or am I waisting my time?
If I can get my hands on a swarm can it be successfully introduced to her if I remove the queen from the wild swarm?
Thanks for the help,
Very little chance the hive can be saved with that few bees. If you had another hive to add them too, that would be a good idea. But I'm guessing you don't.
And yes, putting the queen with another swarm would be fine. But how will you find a swarm just instantly? You need to find it right away. The queen needs care - royal jelly and all. But if you find a swarm ASAP, you could add the few bees AND the queen to that (newspaper method).
Beth
If you can get the 80 bees and the queen in a small box they might last a while, especially with some candy for feed. But they probably won't get going with that few bees. But 80 bees can keep a queen alive a lot longer then four or five attendants.
Thanks for the help....
I just let the new queen loose into the hive this afternoon. The bees were doing a lousy job of digging through all that candy so I smoked them a bit and let her make a run for the entrance. It's been almost 3 days so I hope they won't kill her. Maybe they'll keep her going long enough for me to find some replacement bees.
I keep seeing on the news where the fire Dept. is soaping up another swarm but I'll be danged if I can get my hands on some.
Eric