Hi there.
Out of my three hive one was a dead out, so I thought.
I found the queen walking around on the top box top frames today.
I was about to just clean out the dead bees... when I found here.
I took out most of the dead bees and moved the live handful of bees to the center of the hive, they were off to one side.
i placed the queen back in after marking here.
What should I do? I have two more hive one look strong with tons of bees coming and going collecting pollen.. should I move a frame with nurse bees on it over to the other hive or should i do something with the queen in a cage or just let it finish dieing out?
Done forget I'm up in Canada and the temps are now allowing the bees to fly for about 5 days now.
Glen
You can try moving a frame of capped brood and nurse bees over and see what happens. Reduce the size of the box to the absolute minimum also for now. Also reduce the entrance, they will be a big fat robbing target. No guarantees at all that they will make it, but if the big hive is really strong you can give it a whirl.
JC
Yea, if you are wanting to see just for the sake of curiosity pull a couple frames for her and see what happens. May have to cage her or wait a while for the other bees to know they are queenless, Someone else may weigh in on this. I would think cage a few days with them or place her under a queen induction cage over emerging brood. My thinking is the hive failed for some reason and the queen you are speaking of is a good likely suspect. In particular if you found absolutely no brood not even a small patch. Just MAO ...... :-D
Thanks for the input guys! :)
some history of this queen:
Got her in a nine frame nuc on june the 11th 2013, last year.
She swarmed last summer on July the 11th went up at tree.
got the swarm out of a tree and put her in a hive gave her a frame of sealed brood.
Aug 31 gave her a half dozen frames of brood.
In Nov The hive got K wing from to many mites.... Did several OA treatments.
Figured the hive may or may not make it through the winter.
The hive she swarmed from is the hive that is doing the best.
I'm thinking I'll just let it die. It appears to me she has been a struggler from the start when I got her last June in a 9 frame nuc.
To bad thought it would be kind of neat to see if she could take off, but don't realy want to jeopardize the other two hive for the sake of her. sigh :(
Glen
She produced one good hive for you. I think I would see if she can do it again. If for no other reason for a learning experiment.
If she swarmed, are you sure it is the same queen? Most swarms replace their queen about a month later.
Jim
Quote from: sawdstmakr on April 14, 2014, 12:43:43 AM
If she swarmed, are you sure it is the same queen? Most swarms replace their queen about a month later.
Jim
:? :? Never heard that before! Where did you get that information?