risky...

[TerraJoy]

I had some advice given to me and now I am not so sure if it was right or wrong... I was told to re-queen a hive that has been having a hard time... So yesterday I was introducing a new queen to this hive. I added a queen excluder and shook out all the bees on the ground in front of the hive in to make sure that if I did have a virgin queen she would not be allowed back in and my new queen would have a chance to become established.  All went well until I returned a few hours later and noticed that about a thousand or so bees were underneath the stick I had set up for them to get back into the hive.  So I put them into another hive that had a little drawn comb.  This all seem very risky and I hope that I don't lose both the hives now.

Today there are a handful of bees hanging outside both hive entrances... what do you think they are going to do?...shoot...

[Bee-Bop]

Looks like the bees that stayed outside are with their queen ?

Bee-Bop

[FRAMEshift]

What do you mean by "hard time"?  I think the first question is whether you actually needed to re-queen.

Why did you use a queen excluder?

If you are going to keep the second small hive, you should add a frame of eggs so they can make a queen if they don't have one.

[Kathyp]

did you kill your old queen first or dump her out?

[sc-bee]

Alot of questions:

How did you introduce the new queen--- just shake out the bees and add new queen? Did you introduce the queen in a cage first for a few days?
 
Queen excluder over entrance? A virgin queen is sometimes able to slip through an excluder.

I have heard of shaking bees away from hive for a laying worker but not to introduce a queen to a hive
that you suspect a virgin queen in?

Seems you have kinda a wait and see situation now on the original hive. Check the original hive for the new queen in a few days.
 
What are your intentions with the small hive?? Don't think they will make it with just drawn comb. Search it for a virgin queen if possible to spot. Add a frame of brood with eggs to see if they try and draw a queen cell. If they try to draw a queen cell they are queenless. Then decide you intentions with the new hive. Maybe combine back with the original. Depends on your resources.

If they don't try to draw a queen cell a queen is present. Then you need to decide if you have enough resources to continue with the smaller hive (as in give it more brood if possible). Do you have a flow coming on? Do you need to feed the new hive (probably yes) at least until established?
 




 

[iddee]

The small hive DOES have a queen. Find her and pinch her. Then combine the bees with the original hive.

[sc-bee]

>The small hive DOES have a queen.

I would say so too based on info given ---- but finding a virgin queen (which was mentioned in the post) if indeed that is what it is, could be a bit tough. And I was trying to give an option to keep the virgin queen, if one present and therefore have a queen on hand!

If the queen was failing from the start and never saw queen cells or had a swarm etc. then most probably the old queen is the one with the small pile of bees and indeed pinch her and combine.