Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => REQUEENING & RAISING NEW QUEENS => Topic started by: Miss Bee Haven Bee Farm on June 11, 2009, 07:53:11 pm

Title: Queen taken from hive during split by accident
Post by: Miss Bee Haven Bee Farm on June 11, 2009, 07:53:11 pm

I raise honey bees and queens and I have looked here for this answer to this question but did not see one. I do splits from a 2 brood box (20 frames) parent hive to a 5 frame Nuc once the nuc raises a queen I let the queen start laying for a few weeks and transfer them to a 10 frame hive.
Now here is the question I did a split and accidentily transferd the queen to the Nuc and after about 4 days I noticed the nuc had fresh eggs laid so I looked and found the queen from the parent hive, If I put the queen straight back into the parent hive (after being gone 4 days) will they reject her and kill her or will they accept her back immediatly? For safety I put her in a queen cage with a candy plug. I have never made this mistake before and was wondering.

Title: Re: Queen taken from hive during split by accident
Post by: doak on June 13, 2009, 12:26:42 pm

The bees in the parent hive will most likely kill her. They have already started rearing a new queen.
I would leave her in the nuc and you will have a strong nuc. Just add one frame of capped brood for a booster.
Nuc's should not be used to rear queens, not enough nurse bees. The nuc is used for a mating house for a new Virgin queen. Hope this helps. :)doak.