I'm splitting a hive within the next couple days. Should I put the caged queens in the splits as soon as I split the hive and get rid of the old queen or should I give them some time to be queenless before adding the queens?
Hi there, you will want to leave them queenless for at least 24hrs before introducing a new queen.
24 hrs is best. Over 24 is not better sometimes worse (if they start making cells). A few hours will suffice if making it back to the yard is a problem. No Russian involved is there? Russians sometimes change the game plan at least for release etc.
The queens are due tomorrow morning. I'll split the hive now and let the bees mope around until then. Thanks
I have to disagree with that. I have never waited. The bees know they are queenless within an hour, maybe within minutes. They will have queencells started within 24 hours.
If Russian, release time is longer, not wait to introduce time.
These are Buckfast. How about if I split first thing in the morning and introduce the queens 4 or 5 hours later?
24 hour wait works most time.
2 minute wait works most time.
Anywhere in between works most time.
Use the one best suited to your needs. No need to make it hard on yourself when all ways work.
Quote from: iddee on July 29, 2014, 02:04:27 PM
I have to disagree with that. I have never waited. The bees know they are queenless within an hour, maybe within minutes. They will have queencells started within 24 hours.
If Russian, release time is longer, not wait to introduce time.
Didn't expect you too agree ID .... never have never will :devilbanana: And I should have said overnight not 24hrs :) But I have done it both ways hours or overnight.
If I'm in an outyard, I would do the split, eat lunch, and put the queen cages in. If I'm in my backyard I'd make them queenless in the afternoon and put the cages in the next morning. Overnight, in my opinion, is optimal. Over 24 hours, in my opinion, is too long.
I like to make splits in the morning and add cells or queens in the afternoon. Same thing for requeening, remove the queen and add new queen a few hours later or immediately if I am at an out yard where I would have to come back to later. I don't like to wait over night because I have had them start queen cells and that just makes things a little more difficult. One word of advise with queens is don't do anything until you have the queens in your hand. Lots of things can happen before you get the queens.
Ditto on what John said about waiting until you have the queens in hand before making any splits.
Jim
>Ditto on what John said about waiting until you have the queens in hand before making any splits.
A queen in the mail is just an imaginary queen. She may not even exist, she may be shipped to the wrong place, she may get left on the hat dashboard of the mail delivery person... She is not a real queen until she is in your hand and still alive...
Quote from: Michael Bush on August 02, 2014, 12:16:28 PM
>Ditto on what John said about waiting until you have the queens in hand before making any splits.
A queen in the mail is just an imaginary queen. She may not even exist, she may be shipped to the wrong place, she may get left on the hat dashboard of the mail delivery person... She is not a real queen until she is in your hand and still alive...
If they would have arrived dead, I would have taken a drive to get them replaced. Luckily, they arrived in fine shape on Wednesday morning.
I decided to make a few more frames so I kept them in the house overnight and made the splits Thursday morning and put the cages in without removing the cap.
Today I went in and removed the caps from the queen cages. The bees seemed much more calm than they have been. Could be the new queens. Could be the fact that they were just split. I was in and out fast because it's overcast and we're expecting some storms to roll through.
I'll go back in around Wednesday to retrieve the queen cages.