Several weeks ago I split an aggressive hive into three. Two of the hives I requeened with carniolan queens and the third I left the original Buckfast queen and moved them into the woods.
Today I went out with the intention of adding a second brood box to each of the hives with the new queens. Sadly, the first hive I checked had no brood and I couldn't locate the queen. The bees were building a little on the empty frames. I checked the super, in case the queen decided to move up there, still no sign of brood, just honey.
The second hive was much better. All 6 empty frames I added when I did the split were drawn and full of brood. The bees were also all over me. As soon as I lifted the honey super up, a huge cloud was in my face. As I checked for brood, even more came at me. I gave them another deep full of empty frames and closed them up.
I was planning on checking the Italian hive sitting next to them but with so many bees in the air, I didn't want to start a robbing frenzy. I did get to watch the Italian guards fight one of the Buckfast bees that tried to get in.
Since I was dressed for it, I went ahead and mowed around the hives.
Then I went to check the Buckfast. There was a little activity in front of the hive. When I lifted the cover, not one bee came at me. They're building the hive up nicely. I gave them 2 frames of brood and a half drawn frame of comb along with a medium with about 20% capped honey. They have two frames roughly 1/2 drawn out and a third one started with capped and uncapped brood.
I'm thinking maybe next weekend of rechecking the first hive. If it is indeed queenless, I may combine it with the hive in the woods.
Sorry to hear about the missing queen. Did you ever see brood in that hive or did you wait weeks to inspect? Did you buy a mated queen or was she reared by you?
Quote from: rookie2531 on August 18, 2014, 04:12:21 PM
Sorry to hear about the missing queen. Did you ever see brood in that hive or did you wait weeks to inspect? Did you buy a mated queen or was she reared by you?
I bought the two queens. I gave them a few weeks to get settled before going in. I'll double check this weekend before doing something with that hive.