Observations from my OB hive

[Frantz]

So I have this new OB hive that I have set up in the room, I have so many questions now that I am thinking setting up the OB hive to learn more might have been a mistake. I feel dumber now than I did before. I am realizing that there is so much to learn. LIKE......
#1. I am yet to have a queen, but how do I tell her from some of of the drones, my drones are huge and to me look like what a queen looks like. I am looking through the pics here of queens and thinking, I must have 50 queens in my little OB hive. Confusion!!!
#2 I brought 2 frames from my hives up on the hill, and one had what I believe is a queen cell on it. So I was careful with it. They fastened it to the glass as soon as I got everything put together. Now they have built about 5 more queen cells in the last couple of days... So the question is, can I harvest the other queen cells and put them in my other hives that are weak?? Or is the queen cell that came with the two frames going to hatch and kill the others before I can do anything?

More questions to follow trust me, the wife is just yelling to get off the *^$#*$ computer!!
Later
F

[Robo]

#1. I am yet to have a queen, but how do I tell her from some of of the drones, my drones are huge and to me look like what a queen looks like. I am looking through the pics here of queens and thinking, I must have 50 queens in my little OB hive. Confusion!!!

It sounds like you have no queen yet, or a virgin queen at best.  Do you see any eggs?  Virgin queen are not much bigger, if at all, than a worker bee,  the only thing that distinguishes them from a worker is their thorax is much more pronounced.  I have a picture in one of my presentation that I'll dig out when I get a chance.  Drones have big ole eyes and a queen doesn't.

#2 I brought 2 frames from my hives up on the hill, and one had what I believe is a queen cell on it. So I was careful with it. They fastened it to the glass as soon as I got everything put together. Now they have built about 5 more queen cells in the last couple of days... So the question is, can I harvest the other queen cells and put them in my other hives that are weak?? Or is the queen cell that came with the two frames going to hatch and kill the others before I can do anything?

It's pure timing who gets them first, you or the newly hatched queen.   I must say though that giving a queen cell to a weak colony is not a good option, it is going to set them back even more as there will be a period of no brood being raised,  and it will be a month before any brood from you new queen starts increasing the population again.  It is much wiser to replace weak hives with mated queens. You would be better to let the weak queen continue raising brood while your replacement queen is mated in a nuc,  then introduce her with a double screen board so you take advantage of two queen boosting the hive for a period of time.

[Frantz]

Great, thanks Robo. The big eyes thing helps. The ones that I am looking at definately have big eyes.
I brought up a couple of frames with eggs and brood and such. So I think that I have no queen.
Any pictures would be appreciated. I tried to make sure that I did not bring the queen up with the frames, but never having actually seen one, who knows.
So, if I have 5 cells now I would have to get them quick, get then into cages and intro them into a mating nuc. Then once they are mated introduce them into a weak hive?? Something like that.. Sounds simple enough.
Would I have to cage them, or could I just put them into a queenless nuc with no problem??
Thanks ahead of time.
I am really interested in providing some nuc packages and queens for the area here. Nobody seems to do much around here.
F

[johnnybigfish]

Yeh, you have a "Queen"....I can hear her from here hollering at you to get off the computer!!

your friend,
john

[Frantz]

Amen Brother, Amen....
Of Course I do have the OB hive in the bedroom on her side of the bed!!!

[Robo]

Here is a picture of a virgin queen.  You can see she is not much bigger than workers.


If you can get the queen cells out before the first queen hatches and kills them, then yes,  you can just put them in queenless nucs.  But I would think twice about it.  I'm not very big on emergency queens, and I'd be even more skeptical of ones raised by only 2 frames of bees. If you want to use them to requeen a hive,  make a queen-less nuc right in the hive you want to requeen with a double screen board.  This way the old queen continues to lay while the new queen mates and starts laying.  Then you can have both laying for a while to boost the hive back up before you get rid of the original queen.

You can read more about it here -> http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/beekeeping/queen-introduction/

Just install the queen cell instead of a caged queen.