Queenless but not hopeless ... logistics

[fatshark]

It takes about a month to get a laying queen from eggs ... What do you do when you have a hive that appears queenless but you have new mated queens available "real soon now"? I'm in this position - and come to think of it, was last year at a similar time - a hive has swarmed, the new Q emerged and either failed or got lost on the mating flight. The colony has almost no sealed brood and is starting to fill the centre of the brood nest with honey - there's a great flow of nectar on at the moment, they have three heavy supers as well.

I have mated/soon to be mated queens in my Kielers now ... they'll be ready to go into hives in a fortnight. Do you wait for a mated Q from your own grafts or give them a frame of eggs (or a few grafts) to start to make a new Q knowing you'll be replacing her very soon (and possibly even before she's mated). If I didn't have the Q's coming on stream soon I'd unite them with a queenright colony PDQ.

This is a logistics problem, compounded by the problem of requeening a long-queenless colony (which I get around by caging the queen in one of those Nicot cages over a frame of emerging brood from another hive).

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Fatshark

If you have spare unmated queens you could wait till night time
Soak the queen with a water sprayer with a tiny amount of sugar so it tastes sweet
Put her quietly in the back of the hive from above

Otherwise I would put a frame of brood in and knock off any Q/C starts
Then use a push in cage

You probably have a better plan already :)

[Jon]

I would put a frame of eggs/larvae in.
That will let you know if it is queenright or not, and if it isn't, just knock down the queen cells before you introduce your new queen.
Having brood in a colony keeps it more stable and also delays the development of laying workers.
It's best not to rush queens out of mating nucs as MBC mentioned the other day.

A box without brood to look after can pack in an awful lot of honey. Might be good timing if there is a flow on.

[fatshark]

DR ... no better plan at all, and as Jon suggests they are really piling in the nectar. I've done a demo with my observation hive today and disassembled it on getting back home so popped a frame of eggs in to the Q- colony ... in high winds and rain squalls. Lovely!

[The Drone Ranger]

DR ... no better plan at all, and as Jon suggests they are really piling in the nectar. I've done a demo with my observation hive today and disassembled it on getting back home so popped a frame of eggs in to the Q- colony ... in high winds and rain squalls. Lovely!

A friend taking an observation hive (a very old one) round schools was terrified the kids would topple it over
Is the glass toughened on your new one ?

I have to move queen cells into mini nucs tomorrow afternoon and the weather for that looks rough :)

Best of luck with the queenless one should be ok this time of year

[fatshark]

Hi DR
I've 'reviewed' the hive on another thread this evening ... however I deliberately didn't comment on the glass. It's thick and heavy but I'm not sure if it's safety glass. It is not kite marked. I'm not going to test it, but I might take it to a local glazier for comment and possible replacement.

[fatshark]

Damn ... meant to also add that our H&S people required the hive to be attached to the table. I cut a piece of wood a table width long, screwed it to the base and clamped it to the table. Remember that the display frame is on top of a five frame nuc ... These are pretty heavy, so I felt there was little danger in it toppling.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Fatshark
I read your review
Its bit pricey but you will get replacement bits from Thorne's if needed I think
Sounds like a good piece of equipment :)

[fatshark]

Not queenless after all ;-)