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Author Topic: Interesting problem, I have an extra mated queen  (Read 5576 times)

Offline contactme_11

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Interesting problem, I have an extra mated queen
« on: August 09, 2008, 12:59:02 am »
I have one pretty big healthy hive and one nuc from an early july split going right now. The nuc doesn't appear to be doing well making their own queen as I had hoped. So I ordered one from a reputable supplier and long story short he had forgot to send out my order. So as a gesture of goodwill he sends me an email today that my order was sent and he included an extra queen at no charge. A very nice gesture, only I don't really need it right now. I'm afraid of taking any more brood from my good hive at this point so what should I do? There's no one else arould here that needs it. I was thinking about just putting a bunch of bees with her in a box with some frames and let them start as a (weak) package. Is it too late in the year to try something like this? I have to act fast as the 2 queens are supposed to arrive tomorrow.

Offline SgtMaj

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Re: Interesting problem, I have an extra mated queen
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2008, 01:32:21 am »
Would you be at all interrested in putting a small package of bees together to sell with her?  If so, how much would you charge?

Offline rdy-b

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Re: Interesting problem, I have an extra mated queen
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2008, 01:33:21 am »
you can if you have drawn frames-put drawn frames in a box with top and bottom then move the big colony across the yard and place the new box in its place with the new queen-add frames of honey or feed -field force will give new queen there start -old queen has the nurse bees and brood for there start - thats the way i would do it if there wasnt extra brood -great learning opportunity-maybe latter you could do some equalizing before winter- RDY-B

Offline contactme_11

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Re: Interesting problem, I have an extra mated queen
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2008, 11:55:58 pm »
Would you be at all interrested in putting a small package of bees together to sell with her?  If so, how much would you charge?

I'm sorry, I think I'd rather keep it.

Offline contactme_11

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Re: Interesting problem, I have an extra mated queen
« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2008, 12:04:51 am »
So I decided that if it didn't cost me anything else I would keep the extra queen and set up another hive. I had an extra medium super and some partially drawn frames; went through my scrap wood and collected enough to make a bottom board, inner cover and top cover. I used to do sheetmetal work for a living and had some metal tiles from when I did tin ceilings, I used one to make the cover on the top. It actually looks really awesome, I'll post pics later. Lastly I grabbed a frame full of honey with a ton of bees from my good hive and stuck it in with the new queen. We'll see how it goes from here.

Offline contactme_11

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Re: Interesting problem, I have an extra mated queen
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2008, 08:12:32 pm »
I had an interesting situation happen yesterday. All seemed to be going well with this new hive. Checked on them in the morning before work and all the bees appeared to be doing their usual thing. Also still working on freeing the queen from her cage. I leave and when I come back in the evening I notice thier are considerably less bees active. Afraid they may have swarmed I look in the hive and the queen is still in the cage with about 1/4 as many bees as before. No more dead bees than usual either. Also the frame of honey I put in was empty, gone. I noticed that the bees coming and going were headed in the direction of the mother hive.
I believe that the hive was robbed but is it possible that the bees in the new hive started to return back to the old hive after a couple of days? Maybe following their old brothers? I wasn't sure what to do so I've let it go for a couple of days. I checked to tonight, same amount of bees, queen almost free. Still not sure what to do I grabbed a few hundred bees from the good hive and threw them in an empty super as a newspaper combine. For the night I blocked the entrance so they couldn't go right home before dusk. I don't really have any place far to move the hive right now, not more than 100' maybe. Think moving and/or turning it would help?

Offline rdy-b

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Re: Interesting problem, I have an extra mated queen
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2008, 10:21:28 pm »
swap the location with the other hive so you pick up the field force put in honey frame like you had -parent hive will be moved short disstance and turn it around -parent hive has nurse bees and brood and old queen -they will be fine field force will suply bees and keep hive from geting robed -this will work -other wise you cant hold bees in that box -add brood if any avalible- RDY-B