Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: royboy on October 07, 2004, 02:25:54 pm

Title: does brood comb need to be active or can it be empty
Post by: royboy on October 07, 2004, 02:25:54 pm

Yes i have never done this before
I have a cone set up to a hive box from a ground wild hive -- In the hive box i have some empty comb from an existing hive -- I have a marked queen still in package also in the hive box -- question -- do I need to use active brood comb in the hive box -- or will empty comb from existing brood hive work for the new queen after she is released

Title: Re: does brood comb need to be active or can it be empty
Post by: Finman on October 08, 2004, 01:22:41 am

Quote from: royboy

Yes i have never done this before
I have a cone set up to a hive box from a ground wild hive -- In the hive box i have some empty comb from an existing hive -- I have a marked queen still in package also in the hive box -- question -- do I need to use active brood comb in the hive box -- or will empty comb from existing brood hive work for the new queen after she is released

When you give a new queen, it is better that bees do not have brood. Without brood bees are anxsious to get the new queen. If they have brood, they try to raise queen cells their own. - If I understood you right?

After that, if you have capped and just hatching brood, queen get fresh nursing bees and it can double  egg laying. Otherwise she must wait 3 weeks to get nursing bees.

Title: just to end the story --
Post by: roy on January 01, 2005, 09:04:17 pm

i made a chicken wire funnel to try to keep the wild bees in the brood box with the new queens -- yes the wild bees had a really hard time getting back into the old (in  the ground -under tool shed ) hive -- and did tend to stay in the hive box ---- butttt -- the not so friendly little ants also used the funnel to get into the hive and did away with the queen --  the end -- the wild hives are still wild -- i do hope they make the winter -- san diego county hive generally have had a hard time -- really dry -- some commerical enterprises have been importing hives -- no harm no foul ----roy

Title: does brood comb need to be active or can it be empty
Post by: beemaster on January 01, 2005, 09:18:49 pm

I might have missed the point of the post, but if you are starting a NEW HIVE than you will want some brood besides just having empty cells and workers. Brood will filling the gap beteen the queen hatching and the forst generation to hatch which she lays after mating.

You can't speed up the first generation of workers from eggs layed by a newly mated queen - and I never minded having competition queen cells in a new hive, just in case the queen has a poor pheromone or is killed during the mating process or other accidents. But a good queen will create an enviroment where workers will take care of "Other queens or queen cells" and you will have a good queen PLUS lots of younger bees ABLE to do in-hive duties as the first generation from the new queen emerges.