How long till I can recombine.

[hexadecimal]

So after a normal artificial swarm spilt how long till I can recombine to one hive?

Possibly complicated in this case as well as for some reason the Q cell left ended up getting tore down (not overly concerned as happy to keep the original Q anyway).

So they are now at the point the new Q should be mated and starting to lay. However they are Q- and packing the nectar in like no ones business.

Original queen in good swing, solid patterns where new comb is pulled etc.
So can i now recombine with newspaper and get them back down to one brood box over the next week or so and get them back to the job in hand of filling supers?
Or do I need to give them a bit longer Q-.

Cheers

Hex

 

[Beefriendly]

Are you sure that was the only queen cell?
If they tore one down it does suggests there may have been more than one queen cell present in your split.
They can hide them in difficult to find places. And a new queen often takes longer than the text books suggest to start laying.
I would first add a test frame of eggs/very young larvae from another hive to confirm if they really are queenless before doing anything.

 

[mickbees23]

As Nigel suggests I rather think you will have a new queen in there some where. They would most likely build a load of emergency cells rather than tear the only one down if there was no viable queen in the colony. Have they started to clear and polish a patch of cells near the centre of the hive ? Its a good sign there is a queen if so. I would check, check and check again before uniting.

Cheers. Mick.

 

[Eyeman]

So after a normal artificial swarm spilt how long till I can recombine to one hive?

Possibly complicated in this case as well as for some reason the Q cell left ended up getting tore down (not overly concerned as happy to keep the original Q anyway).

So they are now at the point the new Q should be mated and starting to lay. However they are Q- and packing the nectar in like no ones business.

Original queen in good swing, solid patterns where new comb is pulled etc.
So can i now recombine with newspaper and get them back down to one brood box over the next week or so and get them back to the job in hand of filling supers?
Or do I need to give them a bit longer Q-.

Cheers

Hex

Just confirm Q- by putting in a test frame of eggs/young larvae from your Q+ hive into your hive you suspect is Q-. If they produce queen cells on the test frame then you can combine.