drstitson
Queen Bee
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2010
- Messages
- 7,656
- Reaction score
- 3
- Location
- surrey, lincolnshire etc.
- Hive Type
- Dadant
- Number of Hives
- 14
A newbie who did our association beginners course 2 years back and bought some bees off me early last summer to populate her dartington found herself queenless with laying workers in late august. Being rather late in season, having no nearby brood to spare myself and likewise nowhere nearby to shake the bees out we looked into the various options, including a chat with HM.
rather than give up on the colony and resource next spring - in the end my plan involved sourcing a queen (thanks TOBY-3652), moving colony and letting the foragers return to a new hive on original site. once they'd been there for a day or so introduced cage (bees and cage perfumed syrup sprayed) and left for a week until sure not attracting undue attention then released. 8 days down the line there were two frames with patches of single eggs and 1-2 day old larvae.
now just relocating original hive ready to do a final forager unite before dealing with remaining house bees including the layers.
rather than give up on the colony and resource next spring - in the end my plan involved sourcing a queen (thanks TOBY-3652), moving colony and letting the foragers return to a new hive on original site. once they'd been there for a day or so introduced cage (bees and cage perfumed syrup sprayed) and left for a week until sure not attracting undue attention then released. 8 days down the line there were two frames with patches of single eggs and 1-2 day old larvae.
now just relocating original hive ready to do a final forager unite before dealing with remaining house bees including the layers.