I have a Queen that over wintered in Wisconsin and want to get some of her stock into my hives instead of the Northern California Queens that came with my packages.
From things I have read, please correct me if I am wrong is to find the Queen cage her in a makeshift cage over the empty comb and let her lay in the comb. For how long? then remove the frame and place into a small nuc and let nature take its course?
Once the Queen begins to hatch out will I need to place them in their own nucs? I know they will kill one another if left together.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
You could pull a couple frames from the hive and make a nuc with them. Pull a frame of eggs and young larvae and a frame of honey and pollen. Perhaps a frame of capped brood as well. And plenty of bees. Close the nuc up for 12 hours or so. Make sure the bees have plenty of ventilation. The bees will realize that they're queenless and start rearing a few from the young larvae.
It beats messing with your queen and stressing her out if you don't have to.
Or you could take the old queen with a couple frames with bees, food and mixed brood and start a nuc from that. Just make sure a frame with eggs and young larvae are left in the parent hive. :) d2
http://bushfarms.com/beesafewgoodqueens.htm (http://bushfarms.com/beesafewgoodqueens.htm)
When I get ripe cells, I move them to two frames of brood, pollen, and stores in a
mating nuc and bank them there until I need them. Four part queen castle with 2-frame
splits works for me.