Splits for Christmas

[Sydney guy]

I had a hive that has been struggling for over a year so i decided to order a replacement queen and otder 2 extras to split my other 2 hives for a early Christmas present to myself. I did the split on the 22/12/16 took 3 frames of brood and 2 frames of honey from both hives and put them in a new 10 frame box with the new queen which was in her little cage.

The hive that was struggling had their queen assassinated. Sentenced to death but being put in a small jar of alcohol for not performing. I read to keep dead queens in a jar of alcohol to use for swarm lures ( not sure if this works)

I checked all 3 hives on boxing day and all 3 queens were working hard laying eggs. It's been a very hot christmas so I did spoil them with 2 days of sugar syrup lol.

Today is really hot too, so going to give them more syrup. Spoilt little girls.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday break :)

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[BeeMaster2]

"The hive that was struggling had their queen assassinated. Sentenced to death but being put in a small jar of alcohol for not performing. I read to keep dead queens in a jar of alcohol to use for swarm lures ( not sure if this works)"
It works real well. Dip a q-tip in the alcohol and wipe it around the entrance then do the same on the other end of the q-tip with Lemon Grass Oil, put the q-tip in a baggie, seal it up and place it in the trap.
Jim

[Sydney guy]

Thank you for the feed back. I would of thought the alcohol would take away any smell the queen had

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[BeeMaster2]

Me too. The first time I did it I had a bunch of virgin queens and placed a queen from the bottle in a trap right next to my workshop. Within minutes the drones and bees were really interested in that trap. The alcohol did not have a chance to dry. I was amazed.
Jim

[Sydney guy]

Wow thats awesome, can't wait to try it out.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk