7 queens and counting....1 hive

[EasternShore]

Got a call from my Bee Mentor to come to his nuc/mother hive site to help figure out this hive. Stock was from FLA, so we are thinking they might have had african traits.

We found a total of 7..yes, 7 queens in 2 deeps. I was amazed. Each was being balled, big time! Not sure if they all came from the same hive, but it was cool to see so many in a short time. We nuc'd them and are hoping to save them all. No idea how many are virgin yet.
Has ANYONE ever seen this many queens in one hive before????

I was so angry I didn't have a cam corder...his bee yard looked like a scene from a horror movie..BEE'S EVERYWHERE!!! angry off Bee's...
We are in a mafor dearth...hives have little to no honey so he's going to feed today till winter. These are his stock hives from which his transit hives come from and we are worried that the African traits may transfer...
Any suggestions?

Oh...robbing is a sport in this yard..if ya don't feed them all it gets ugly FAST!

ahhhh...the pleasures of beekeeping.........

[Frantz]

Sweet, I would have loved to have seen that. I have not heard of 7 queens in one hive, but I am new at this as well. How many hives do you guys have in that yard? You are lucky to have a mentor like that to work with that is for sure.
Good luck. I am curious to know if they do display more AHB type beehavior.
Keep us posted. Let us know how those 7 queens do. If they were already being balled, wouldn't they be stung enough to kill them? I would have thought that they were gonners for sure??
F

[poka-bee]

When they ball them, don't they just press in & vibrate to raise the temp & fry whatever?  :? Do they do both? Jody

[EasternShore]

In that yard there are about 15 hives. His other yard, on a mellon farm ( 300 acres) has 60 which I went thru frame by frame. (8am to 7pm). Talk about exhausted...was a hot day too.

The supposed AHB are somewhat tamer than I expected, they will follow you more than 100' to beat you up...I have the knot on my head to prove it. This was a single bee that just decided I was a good target. I never got swarmed.

They have to be smoked heavy to work with ,but don't seem as aggressive as one would expect. I have no way to prove AHB status, but they came from a FLA Beek who could no longer handle them. They do swarm ALOT...3 times in 3 months and are VERY prolific, filling 2 deeps in 1 month from a med split which was requeened in FLA.

The bee's balling them were small groups of 15 to 20 bee's..I think they were distracted by all the OTHER queens! Not sure if any were mated, we will know if they don't return to the mother hive and get whacked. We lost one that flew off, so only 6 are in boxes as of yesterday.

We closed those hives off completely and I'm sure he will check them today after the storm we had rolls thru.
RAIN FINALLY  YEEEHAAAAAA

Golden Rod is going crazy since Hanna droped 3 inches of rain.

Went thru my 3 hives, all is well...new queen in my split is laying a tight pattern, added a deep frame of brood to up their number till the new kids are born. Also added a deep full of drawn comb to 1 newer single deep hive in hopes of them storing for winter...not much time left but I'm praying.

My Mother Hive is going well, still not as heavy as I'd like but time will tell, hoping the new flow will inspire them.

I tested a shallow frame in one of the small singles with only a starter, drawn out 80% in 3 days..GO GIRLS!!!! Decided to add 5 drawn comb and made up the other 5 with starter strips to see how it would go.

Still feeding due to limited nectar in the area... it's been SO dry. Glad I did,  I used another deep to cover a Boardman on top of the frames  with a inner cover on top and the Telescoping cover over that.
No robbing at this time.

Will let you all know sunday how the queens do, success is doubtful.
Mark

[JP]

Most all of the seven queens are virgins, except one, maybe two.

This colony I removed from a small playhouse's floor hadn't been there but perhaps 6 months and I caught a total of 9 queens.

Here's a link: http://picasaweb.google.com/pyxicephalus/APRIL102008#


I even had one of the queens leave the area and enter my bee vac, so a swarm actually moved into my bee vac!!

...JP

[EasternShore]

JP..THANKS SO MUCH!!!

Very cool pictures!! SAAAAWEEEET! 9 lucky ladies...now that must be a record!

AHB?
They look calm...Ha...   :-D

[JP]

JP..THANKS SO MUCH!!!

Very cool pictures!! SAAAAWEEEET! 9 lucky ladies...now that must be a record!

AHB?
They look calm...Ha...   :-D

I only had three queen catchers and two queen cages with me, the other 4 queens I put in a small vented tupperware container, only one made it in that container, they duked it out.


No AHB.

...JP

[EasternShore]

Gotta love a good cat fight...errr queen fight...