Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: duck on September 17, 2012, 09:50:32 pm
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FULL of bees, FULL of drones, 9 queen cells piping at each other, two have emerged, saw one queen run across a frame, couldnt catch her before it got dark. Ok so I have 4 queenless hives, that I knew I had, and ordered 7 queens today before I looked in the nuc. I have a bunch of double deeps in this yard. I transferred one frame that had ONE ripe cell on it, to a queenless hive. she was making noise so its safe she will emerge and be unmolested. If the bees in there accept her. I use plastic foundation so I cant really cut it up.. or can I with a dremel.. it is ONE frame but it is completely drawn out. Im sure the would fill in the gaps right, or leave holes to pass through. I can probly make some splits and just feed the heck out of them. What are the chances that these unmated queens will successfully mate? What are my options here??
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so the queen cells that are talking out loud, can i take a small pick or like that and uncap the cell, scoop up the queen and put her in a wooden style cage with attendants and place her in a queenless hive letting them chew a marshmellow up to get to her? Anyone ever help em hatch out faster?
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Why not take the queen cell and put into your queenless hive? I have done this a few times in the last few weeks. No guarantee it will work for you though :-X
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they are all on one plastic foundation on both sides, If I scrape it off, im sure it will mess up the cell. If I cut it out with a dremel it might work.
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Oh sorry. Didn't even think of plastic foundation.
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Catch them as they emerge with queen clips. A queenless hive will accept a virgin without introduction cage. ""direct release""
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was transferred one cell last night.. One queen who is fat and swollen definitely mated.. Im pretty sure she got to 4 other cells before I had a chance at lunch to get to them. I transferred the frame with the remaining cells less bees to another queenless hive.. will check this evening if one emerged. Then I will transfer the frame again if one is left.. just playing musical frames. I guess I should have made some push in cages to catch them as they came out.. Then I would have been rockin! still have the 7 queens and a load of double deeps to split! OLE!
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ok this is getting strange.. had 4 queenless hives I know 100% were queenless no eggs, no brood. no queen. Can a virgin queen drift to another hive that is queenless and setup shop?
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I have hundreds of queen cells every summer and still I bye queens from proessionals.
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yeah I buy queens too. What I was asking was if a virgin queen leaves a hive on a mating flight, can she drift to a queenless hive that is inches away?