Mark,
Thanks for your suggestions as well! I would love to introduce a new queen and try to save the nuc, but I do not know if I can get one (especially in time), nor if there are enough bees left to support one anyway, but I will try something and post the results.
Hi Claire, I would sure appreciate you coming by to assess! I am here most of the time - except Tuesday mornings volunteering at Alder Creek. Give me a call and we can figure out a time.
There appear to be about 3 frames with bees, nectar and capped pollen, but no eggs or brood. I just hate the idea of giving up a new nuc (if I incorporate it into the larger one) especially when there is at least a 50/50 chance of losing the other one by years end anyway...
I don't think it possible that they already swarmed, as there were not that many bees, and judging by the lack of any new brood, I wonder if there ever was a laying queen to begin with.
Hi, Yorck!
I have so many questions. The first is, about how many frames do you have with bees on them? If it's a weak colony you are best to combine it with your strong colony using the newspaper method. By weak I would say three frames covered with bees or less.
Is there any chance they swarmed a week or two ago? That would explain the lack of brood. In that case you may be waiting for a virgin queen to mate.
If it's a moderate size colony, I would suggest you take a frame with eggs from your strong colony and give it to your weak. They will raise their own queen.
I would like to come and see your colony at your earliest convenience, weather permitting. You can buy a queen but that only makes sense if the colony is strong enough to support it. Queen acceptance can be a tricky thing. It really helps if you buy a queen to add a frame of open brood with nurse bees when you add a new queen.
You are on the queen rearing committee and we are grafting queens in a week, Monday, June 6th. (There was a notice sent out from the forum about a week ago.) We will have queen cells available by the 20th or so and mated queens available by July 10th or so.
Hope this helps.
Claire
Yorck Franken wrote: Hi All, I just opened my hives today for assessment and feeding. I was one of those who got one strong and one weak nuc. Today I found no sign of the queen in the weak one (plenty of nectar and what look like capped pollen, but no eggs, larvae or capped brood.) I saw at one capped queen cell, and decided it best to close it up and seek advice. What should I do? I try to get another queen or wait for one to hatch, but I wonder if the colony will be big enough to support itself for long... I could try to incorporate them into the stronger hive, but hate to lose the investment so soon after purchase. I could take some frames of brood and bees from the stronger hive, but don't want to weaken that one if the weak one doesn't make it. Anyway, any advice?
Hi All,
I just opened my hives today for assessment and feeding. I was one of those who got one strong and one weak nuc. Today I found no sign of the queen in the weak one (plenty of nectar and what look like capped pollen, but no eggs, larvae or capped brood.) I saw at one capped queen cell, and decided it best to close it up and seek advice.
What should I do? I try to get another queen or wait for one to hatch, but I wonder if the colony will be big enough to support itself for long... I could try to incorporate them into the stronger hive, but hate to lose the investment so soon after purchase. I could take some frames of brood and bees from the stronger hive, but don't want to weaken that one if the weak one doesn't make it.
Anyway, any advice?