Introducing Queens what to do with queenless hive

Welcome to NZ Beekeepers+
Would you like to join the rest of our members? Feel free to sign up today.
Sign up
1
0
Paraparaumu
Experience
Hobbyist
Hi People
So Im a hobbyist and have recently been grafting and making new queens. I grafted 10 and 3 have taken, so so far so good.
I am using a very well fed 5 frame Nuc setup as the queen rearing/finishing colony.

Before the virgin queens emerge I can make other five frame nucs from existing hives and place the queen cells into these.
(I dont want to just kill the queens in the existing hives and insert new queen cells in case the new queens don't return from mating or don't lay properly.)
Then when the queens have returned after mating and are laying I can introduce them to their full size hive by making these queenless using a queen cage and candy to delay the introduction of the new queen.

The part I'm having trouble with is what do I then do with the five farme nucs that are now queenless (they were used to queen raise or house the new queens for their mating and return.)
Can I just put these frames and bees back into their donor hives, will the bees fight, or should I just kill the existing queens and introduce new queen cells into the existing hives and hope for the best.

Best regards
Peewee
 
736
588
Christchurch
Experience
Semi Commercial
So many options… but, yes, just re-merge with the parent hives. Probably best to shake off all the bees at the front door of the parent hive and then insert the frames. Put brood in amongst other brood and empty/stores to the outside. If they have made emergency queen cells, which they probably have, squish them all before putting frames into p hives.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Peewee
109
75
Russia
Experience
International
You can use this option. Take an empty box. Place the main colony overhead, dividing the boxes with newspaper. Make a couple of small slits in the newspaper. And move the frames with the bee into the empty box. Check for uteruses and for virgin queens. You can do this operation towards evening. The question is how long the nukes are without a queen. There may already be bees in them that are taking over the queen's duties - the trout queen. These are the ones that will die when united. An important factor is to bring in nectar. If there is a honey harvest, the bees are more likely to unite.
 


Top