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  • Queen breeding specialism discussion forum.
Queen breeding specialism discussion forum.
 #7191  by Murox
 16 May 2020, 22:34
Qoute @Japeyedge
So I'm thinking:
1. Split nuc into two nuc boxes, dummy to 4 frames each, sharing frames with capped brood evenly between the two
2. Shake some bees from supers of big colony into both nucs (2a - spray air freshener or essential oil sugar mist to confuse pheromone scent?)
3. place queen in each nuc, in push-in cage over emerging brood, honey, pollen and empty cells
4. Leave for four days
5. Return, see if bees are balling her or if happy enough, removing cage if all is well.

Don't remove the push-in cage until she is laying and the bees are calm - laying might take a week perhaps more.
 #7192  by Japey Edge
 16 May 2020, 23:47
stechad wrote:
16 May 2020, 15:55
Bad luck Jaz, if it's any consolation my new queen was not accepted and nowhere to be seen,
Hi Ste - no consolation at all mate, sorry to hear. Hopefully she was just hiding and you spot her next time round
 #7193  by Japey Edge
 16 May 2020, 23:48
Murox wrote:
16 May 2020, 22:34
Qoute @Japeyedge
So I'm thinking:
1. Split nuc into two nuc boxes, dummy to 4 frames each, sharing frames with capped brood evenly between the two
2. Shake some bees from supers of big colony into both nucs (2a - spray air freshener or essential oil sugar mist to confuse pheromone scent?)
3. place queen in each nuc, in push-in cage over emerging brood, honey, pollen and empty cells
4. Leave for four days
5. Return, see if bees are balling her or if happy enough, removing cage if all is well.

Don't remove the push-in cage until she is laying and the bees are calm - laying might take a week perhaps more.
Hi Murox, thanks for the tip but I already removed the cages today. One queen dead, the other OK.
Leaving the second for a week or so.
 #7195  by Steve 1972
 17 May 2020, 12:11
Jazz..another method i was told to try a few moons ago which also worked great.. was ..
Take a frame of emerging brood covered with bees from three different colonies and place them in the six frame nuc.. shake a few more in from the three colonies before you add drawn foundation..(if you have any)..add the Queen in the commercial Queen cage with the candy plug open and give them a little feed..
It confuses the hell out of the bees with three different pheromones and Queen acceptance was good for me trying this method of many..
 #7196  by NigelP
 17 May 2020, 15:35
Nice one Steve, had never heard of doing it that way.
Although I'd still leave the candy tab intact for a few days before removing, that way you have total control over the timing of her released. They usually eat their way through it in a few hours .
 #7266  by stechad
 21 May 2020, 19:31
Japey Edge wrote:
16 May 2020, 23:47
stechad wrote:
16 May 2020, 15:55
Bad luck Jaz, if it's any consolation my new queen was not accepted and nowhere to be seen,
Hi Ste - no consolation at all mate, sorry to hear. Hopefully she was just hiding and you spot her next time round
Checked the nuc again yesterday and found an unmarked queen laying like a train, not the queen I bought from BS, I must have missed a sneaky QC but she is laying well so will see how she goes.
Also received a buckfast from "wild yorkshire honey" yesterday and introduced her in a quintex cage, opened top of nuc today to put a feeder on top and there she was casually strutting across the top of the frames, looks like she will be fine.
 #7307  by Steve 1972
 22 May 2020, 16:24
It is always a relief and a good feeling to see a Queen in a colony that has started laying and a even better feeling to see a marked bought in Queen going about her business ..
 #7423  by stechad
 27 May 2020, 12:09
Removed queen from non productive hive yesterday and placed in a mini nuc for now as my GM queen was arriving today. Opened the hive today and went through the hive removing anything that looked like it could become a QC and introduced the new queen in a quintrex cage over capped brood with some empty cells available for her to lay in, also added a big glob of candy around the entrance tube hoping she wont be released to soon, going to check in a few days to make sure no more QC's have been made. Hopefully I will see a great improvement in around a month or so.
 #7668  by Japey Edge
 08 Jun 2020, 14:12
Two queens arriving tomorrow but 3 colonies are queenless. One had capped QCs so I will leave them to it (the GM buckfast hive).

The other two are my local bees in an 11 frame national and a 6 frame nuc.

Plan tomorrow is to open the hive, take down all sealed QCs - possibly make double sure by shaking each frame. Then find a good patch and try push-in cages again. This time taking the frame away from the hive and putting queen and attendants in without any target colony residents...
Rinse and repeat for the nuc.

I'm hoping the GM buckfast hive is OK but I made a booboo by finding a QC AFTER shaking a frame. Hopefully there is another cell but I will find out with a test frame.

Probably need to complete my apiary move before I do this. Was held up by honey extraction (to reduce weight) and the weather.
 #7685  by Japey Edge
 09 Jun 2020, 20:05
Starting to get my head back into it. Two queens arrived today. Judging by how much sugar they'd worked through they have been caged a while. Weather isn't great for the next few days. My stock of equipment wasn't ideal either.
So I made a judgment call.

I opened my big queenless hive and found 20+ (probably 30+) queen cells. They'd really declared a state of emergency. I shook all the brood frames and some stores into an empty nuc while I went through the frames.

I found two decent frames for push-in introduction cages (cells with food, brood and some empty) so for two frames I stuck the queens with attendants in a patch under a push-in cage - ensuring no residents of the hive were in the cages.

I placed one in the hive, the other in the nuc. I ensured food and brood in both. Plenty of bees in the nuc. I'm allowing for nuc flyers to return before I go back and give them feed. I have a frame feeder with tape over the top in the nuc so I can feed them by that, or by the miller feeder (Maisies nuc).

I should not have given 4 brood frames away this week... Bad time to help relatives out :lol:

Will report back on how this introduction went.