Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: 10framer on February 08, 2014, 11:22:00 pm
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inspected the hives today and found two queenless, both still have bees and stores. i'm considering doing newspaper combines with some other hives that could use the honey. anyone ever done this in the winter?
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Haven't done it, but would without hesitation. If you have bottom entrances, I would put the queenright on top.
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I haven't this time of year. Last year I had a hive that became Queenless, could find a Queen any where close. For a couple of weeks had no brood. I caught a swarm and was going to combine them. Was putting newspaper on hive, checked one more time, and they had a Queen and she was starting to lay. Good luck to you and your bees.
Joe
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Haven't done it, but would without hesitation. If you have bottom entrances, I would put the queenright on top.
I'd agree with iddee, really don't see any reason it shouldn't work, and what's the downside to trying. :?, not to mention, what's your other options. :?
For me, with my lack of experience and weakness at spotting queens, I'd say the downside would be what Joe eludes to and there actually having a queen. However, I've been jammed up for time, equipment, and space before and have simply decided to newspaper combine a queenright hive with a swarm that I, while not visually confirmed, had every reason to believe I had the queen. I figure the two queens will "work it out". :-D
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i've got substantial brood in all my other hives but there is none in these and they sound queenless.
i'm going to do it and i'm also going to take the opportunity to cull some old comb.
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It will work just fine. Last winter I combined a few without newspaper and it worked great.
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these were both queens i planned on culling anyway so i guess it's for the best.
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I've got substantial brood in all my other hives but there is none in these and they sound queenless.
I'm going to do it and I'm also going to take the opportunity to cull some old comb.
I will be making splits here in a couple of weeks. It is almost mid February why not pull a frame of eggs and brood from a strong hive and place in each queen less hive. By the time a queen hatches and she is ready to take her mating flight the weather should be warm enough for drones to be flying. Besides the capped brood in the frames will help boost the hive population and help them make it through the month.
This is just mho as to how I would handle the situation but, you may not want to run the risk of loosing all your bees if it fails.
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no drones and no drone brood. if i had drones that would most likely be my plan.
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Just curious... what are your temps like in Butler Ga. I would be scared to bust my brood up at this point her in SC. Bees bust cluster and then temps dive at night. But maybe I am misinformed, that is why I ask.
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we have a cold snap coming in tomorrow. it was 64 yesterday with a low above 40. it's supposed to be up in the 60's again by thursday or friday.
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Warm temps are not all that is needed for drones to be flying to breed queens. A colony is not going to ramp up for reproduction until the nest is sufficiently replenished for the mother hives survival.
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I personally would put off combining them and requeen them with a queen cell. You can get some from Fred Rossman in a couple of weeks for sure. Dont you have some capped brood from other colony/ies you can transfer into them to tide them over?
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I personally would put off combining them and requeen them with a queen cell. You can get some from Fred Rossman in a couple of weeks for sure. Dont you have some capped brood from other colony/ies you can transfer into them to tide them over?
no drones and no drone brood as of about a week ago. raising queens that won't be mated is pointless. i'm not going to set hives that are building up back just to limp hives that failed through by steeling brood now. if it was during the flow it would be different but the brood i have now will make the foragers i have during the clover flow.
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You are not that far north of where I winter my bees, only by 2 hours and I split in first week of March with plenty of drone stock. Is this an particularly cold long winter in Ga to set back drone production this spring?
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Just curious... what are your temps like in Butler Ga. I would be scared to bust my brood up at this point her in SC. Bees bust cluster and then temps dive at night. But maybe I am misinformed, that is why I ask.
ray, it's probably around freezing right now (3:30 in the afternoon) but it was around 60 over the weekend. the lows have been in the 30's and low 40's even on warm days.
i'm not going to set a couple of hives that are building up back to try to save a couple that failed. both queens were going to be culled this spring anyway.
there are still plenty of bees in the queenless hives so i'm not doing anything until this weekend when things have warmed back up.
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You are not that far north of where I winter my bees, only by 2 hours and I split in first week of March with plenty of drone stock. Is this an particularly cold long winter in Ga to set back drone production this spring?
yes, this is the first cold winter since maybe 08 or 09 that i can recall. 100 miles can make a big difference this far south.
i had drones in january last year but march turned cold and wet. i had to start some early splits over in april because of it.
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valid point. I had to rebuild much of my stuff then as well. So are you right on the cusp of the icing weather right now or is it further north?
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i live 60 miles west of butler and it's just rain here. the forecast yesterday put butler right on the line. i'm not really sure what's happening out there. i'll check things out out there tomorrow or friday.
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10 days ago I paper combined a honey super full of bees to a very weak hive that had a queen and eggs but not enough bees to cover the eggs. I checked on it this past weekend, it is looking much better with enough bees to cover 3 1/2 frames.
Jim
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The Southeast US was hit with a pretty bad snow and ice storm on Wed. 2/13 and a lot are without power. I hope everyone's bees & hives are OK (and you too). That same storm is hitting me in NY right now. The weather is not cooperating much for beekeepers in the South or to even get to their bees. Thoughts are with you guys.
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Thats no lie. I was going to run down to Ga Saturday morning and check on my bees. NOT this weekend. Oh well.