Correction for Laying Workers in Queen less hive

Peanut · May 11, 2016, 09:52:59 PM

This is what my supplier recommended and it worked for Matt J? I got a new queen today. I put her in a new hive in between a couple of new frames but didn?t pull the cork.

I dumped my problem hive. Most of the bees beat me back to the new hive. I made sure no bees were clinging to the components. There were 4 frames of stored honey, pollen and nectar with drone brood in the old hive. I put those in the new hive. There were a few bees on the queen cage but they didn?t appear aggressive. I put the cover on and left them alone. I?ll open the hive tomorrow and if all appears calm I?ll pull the cork and scratch the candy. Then check in four days.

One more detail. I returned to the spot where I dumped the hive an hour later. There were 8 or 10 bees crawling around so I stepped on them just in case they were the laying workers.

If this works or fails I'll post back.

Matt J · May 11, 2016, 11:13:21 PM

Anxious to hear how it goes. Sounds exactly as I did. When I pulled the cork, the cage was covered with bees. I watched Michael Palmer's video on YouTube about how to tell if they will accept her. Basically, he say if they are extending their probiscus, and you can lightly brush them off the cage with the back of your finger, it is a good sign. He says if you can't brush them off, and they are stuck to the cage like Velcro, they probably will not. Mine were acting as though they would accept her, so I went ahead and pulled the cork. If they had been acting aggressively, I probably would've waited another day.

https://youtu.be/RX3BgnOkozs

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Peanut · May 12, 2016, 12:01:38 AM

Quote from: Matt J on May 11, 2016, 11:13:21 PM
Anxious to hear how it goes. Sounds exactly as I did. When I pulled the cork, the cage was covered with bees. I watched Michael Palmer's video on YouTube about how to tell if they will accept her. Basically, he say if they are extending their probiscus, and you can lightly brush them off the cage with the back of your finger, it is a good sign. He says if you can't brush them off, and they are stuck to the cage like Velcro, they probably will not. Mine were acting as though they would accept her, so I went ahead and pulled the cork. If they had been acting aggressively, I probably would've waited another day.

Thanks for the share. I hadn't seen this video. By the way, there is a 4 year beekeeper in Trussville I know on FB, lots of resources if you are on the NE side of Birmingham. If you are on FB message me...

Michael Bush · May 12, 2016, 09:41:43 AM

>This is what my supplier recommended and it worked for Matt J?

There are a lot of things that sometimes work... there are only a few that work 100% of the time.

Peanut · May 12, 2016, 11:55:23 PM

Update? I opened the hive late this afternoon to see how the new queen (in the cage) was being treated. She had a couple dozen attendants on the outside of her cage that I could easily move with my finger, they were taking care of her. I popped the cork, raked the candy and put her back in.

I had hung her cage off the side of a new wedge frame. What bothered me was the lack of activity on that frame. All the rest of the bees were on the old drone brood. It was only after I closed the hive (a while after) did I realize I should have put old frames on each side of her, Make her the center of activity.

I will open the hive in the morning and do just that. It will take less than 30 seconds. Fingers still crossed?

Peanut · May 13, 2016, 11:40:28 AM

Can this get any stranger? This morning, after uncorking the queen cage last evening, I find pupa on the hive porch and on the ground in front of the hive. There were a total of 8 pupa on the ground plus one on the porch makes 9.

The only pupa in this hive were laid by the laying workers. Obviously, pupa are being destroyed and dumped by the bees. Now that there is a queen in the hive, can this be the reason? Are they destroying what was done by the laying workers?

4 pupa in the second photo...

Jim134 · May 13, 2016, 12:20:07 PM

I personally but I followed Michael Bush advice on his link. See you had a yard with more than one beehive just dump the bees out on the ground. Divide equipment up in the other hives. And go home. Another thing you could have done . Set a new nuc in the place of the original hive . Transfer the nuc to a ten frame hive. Dump the original Hive on the ground in front . Now go back and put some extra frames in that you shaking the bees off of. In my opinion everything else is a waste of time and money. Too much distance between yards. And no the bees are not at home. I always have a couple of nucs in never yard I go to .

BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

GSF · May 13, 2016, 12:21:51 PM

I'm only guessing.., making room for worker brood? Hygienic behavior - (mites)? Chilled?

BeeMaster2 · May 13, 2016, 05:19:39 PM

Now that they are queen right they no longer want to produce drones because they are not at full strength. They now have a chance of adding enough honey to the hive to be able to make it through the winter but not if they are spending all of their energy to support the old queens drones.
Yes they are the old queens genetics that laid the worker eggs.
Jim

Matt J · May 13, 2016, 08:21:25 PM

Well. My Laying Worker hive is crashing fast. Very few bees. Just a tiny bit of drone brood. Not drawing out any comb. Queen is still there, but the bees just aren't doing anything. Not taking syrup either. I think I'm just gonna have to write this one off. Sucks, I really wanted to have 2 hives my first year. Oh well, maybe I can find a Nuc for sale.

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Peanut · May 13, 2016, 09:08:47 PM

Thanks everyone!

I watched my problem hive off and on all day. They were constantly bringing in pollen and nectar. I have a little stool by the hive so I can sit and watch what they are bringing in. I had to move it right away because the bees were running into me. I then realized what they were working. My Catawba trees are in full bloom (Catalpa bignonioides).

I?m satisfied they have accepted the queen. She should be free by Monday morning. That will be day 33 since I installed the package. If she starts laying that day it will be day 54 before any brood hatches. I don?t want the numbers to get to low.

Next Thursday will be the 5 week inspection day for my other 4 hives. Maybe I can swipe a good frame of capped brood from one of the other hives. Hopefully that will give them the bump in numbers to keep them going so they can recover from this ordeal.

Sorry about your hive Matt J.

BeeMaster2 · May 13, 2016, 10:02:23 PM

Congratulations Peanut.
I think adding a frame of capped brood is a great idea and will help them at a crucial time.
Jim