After hurricane Irma, one of my friends deep box was knocked over by a tree. Luckily, he found the queen and some bees, about 2 frames, left in the box. All the frames were destroy by branches and water. Now he put the bees in a 4 drawn frames nuc. He took 2 frames of broods and nurse bee from a strong hive, put them in another 4 frames box, and set on top of the nuc with newspaper in between. His reason was that if he put the brood frames alone there are not enough bees to take care of them. Is it wise for him to do that? I just wonder.
Ought to work out just fine. By the time the bees chew through the newspaper they will all be one happy family. I would have approached it the same way.
Ditto Herbhome. Couldn't have said it better.
Watch out for SHB. They will destroy it in a matter of days if not prevented from doing so.
My friend is away for a month. He asked if I can check the combined nuc. I check the bees for him. Everything looked ok except for the 4 emergency queen cups. They all have royal jelly in it. I could not find the queen. So I called my friend and he told me just feed them sugar 1:1 and leave them alone because we may still have enough time for a new queen. It makes me nervous, although they are not mine. I think it's too late. Do you think so?
Quote from: Oneamateur on September 18, 2017, 11:19:12 PM
My friend is away for a month. He asked if I can check the combined nuc. I check the bees for him. Everything looked ok except for the 4 emergency queen cups. They all have royal jelly in it. I could not find the queen. So I called my friend and he told me just feed them sugar 1:1 and leave them alone because we may still have enough time for a new queen. It makes me nervous, although they are not mine. I think it's too late. Do you think so?
This is the way I see it. If it is too late, then there isn't anything you can do... Well you could add a frame of eggs from a strong hive but I would try feeding them first. Wait a couple weeks and see if the queen cells are capped. Is there any pollen coming in? At this point it can't hurt to feed them. It may not help but it can't hurt. Where are you located? Is winter coming? Where I am it would be too late for certain. In the south, they might pull through.
I'm in NW Florida. It's still warm here. Low 90F during the day and lower 70F at night. The golden rods are not here for another week or two.