Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Haddon on October 24, 2011, 11:44:28 am
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I had a hive try to requeen its self this fall so I took the cue and made up 2 split from the hive. really I ended up with 3 nucs just one in a full hive body.
I got the nucs queen right.
The hive body on the other hand refuses to queen right. I even add a cell from one of the nuc might have been something wrong with the cell a week after puting it in the hive they had torn it completely down. I have put frame after frame of eggs in the hive wait a week no cell. so I would then shake that frame and swap for another with eggs.
All I can think is I might have a queen in the hive and she is just not laying or I know the weather might have screwed them up last week after I added the frame last week with eggs temps dropped to in the 30s at night. I think this week might be their last week to get a frame of eggs before I just do a combine.
Yall ever have one that just refuses to queen right or build cells.
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The only time I've ever had that happen is when there is a new queen that the hive is waiting to start laying or if there are laying workers.
Since you've been giving them frames of eggs there is larvae to prevent the laying workers from kicking into gear so we can cross that one off the list.
When you swap a frame for a new one with eggs, are you examining the other frames for clues? If so, what are you seeing? How long have they been without a queen? If it's been less that 30 days since you last saw eggs, then there may be a queen. That window is long by most people's standards but has worked for me.
There are probably other reasons that I don't know about, that's just my experience.
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when you give a queenless hive any frames with eggs or a queen cell you have to be sure that you dont have a virgin queen or queen cells already started. Many people dont realize that if they are queenless and their is just one queen cell they will not except a new queen or queen cells if they are already in the raising mode. Its also best to feed the bees 1 to 1 sugar syrup to simulate a nectar flow if there isnt one going on. the bees arent as testy when there is some kind of food coming into the hive. IMO chris
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this late in the season im guessing even in your area its to late for a queen to mate so the colony is doomed. If im right I would shake it out and let the bees join other hives. If you have a weak colony you could combine it if you find a queen in it first and pinch it.
If it has a queen and its warm enough, you could fasten a piece of queen excluder over the entrance and shake all the bees out and catch the queen as she tries to enter but cant pass through the excluder. Pinch her when you find her. This would enable you to combine it then with a weak colony safely.
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lots of times; i live on the other side of tht state from you. too late if queenless combine or just shake them out
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It's not unusual for a queen to stop laying at this time of year. If you have any capped brood left at all, I would not worry. And in any case it is probably too late to do anything but combine. I think I would just leave the hive alone and see what happens.
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Lots of points to ponder but I have to go along w/ bee-nuts and Frameshift. Queens usually stop laying this late in season and days are still getting shorter, so if present she'll not begin laying again until early January.
No easy answers here. Combine or leave them bee? I guess it would depend on how strong (or weak) your other colonies were. If strong, I'd experiment with the one you think is queenless and give it a bit more time.
We can learn from our mistakes as well as or successes. Want to feel the bumps on my head? :-D
thomas
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We can learn from our mistakes as well as our successes.
I would even say that we learn more from our mistakes, as we are much more likely to remember them, so much less likely to repeat them.