Queen needed

[beezers]

Mated Queen needed. The one cell that I put in was destroyed today. Links seem to be out of gentle non-swarmy Q. If you know where I can order etc
Many thanks from eastbourne

 

[Erichalfbee]

Look in the directory at the top of the page
You could try pm ing Hivemaker

 

[itma]

Mated Queen needed. The one cell that I put in was destroyed today. ...

Any idea why it might have been destroyed?
If you have laying workers they will reject any Q you supply and you will be simply wasting your money ...

 

[beezers]

The directory at the top of the page doesn't seem to have many if any stay-at-home gentle types available. I'm worried if I order one,the order gets delayed another week(bad weather seems to have scuppered the above supplies)& I end up with a islands worth of drones.

 

[beezers]

Any idea why it might have been destroyed?
If you have laying workers they will reject any Q you supply and you will be simply wasting your money ...

It was a cell from a hive that swarmed. I don't think I attached it well enough,it was on the hive floor this morning & half missing. No layers of any sort at the mo.

 

[itma]

Suggest stealing a frame with eggs and tiny larvae from (any) other hive.
Whether or not you choose to keep the resulting 'scrub' queen (or even let the QC(s) develop to fruition), the presence of brood should delay them going laying worker (it is brood pheromones, not the queen's that are important for that). That gives you more time to find a pedigree Q if you want, and improves the chance of her being accepted on eventual introduction.

 

[beezers]

Thanks for your replies. Wasn't the best time to change hive types,. Commercial frames into 14x12 does not go dohdoh. Lesson learnt.

 

[thebhoy]

I bought queen last year from Jean at BEES 4 U ..... very calm bees, and out in all weathers........I have my hives in the garden about 20 feet from patio doors so needed nice bees as the fly across the garden also and have only the fence panel between them and my neighbour. I could go into hive without suit they are so calm.

I am thinking of getting another from them this year to re-queen my other hive ...they bees are ok but just swarmy.

 

[Arfermo]

The BeeMan has virgins available now - Buckfast, carni, blacks, etc. Google him.

 

[Lorenz]

Please think very carefully about whether you might already have a virgin in the hive. Was the cell that fell on the floor gnawed away at the side? If so this is a sign that there is already a virgin in the box, who broke into the cell and killed her rival.

If there is already a virgin in the box and you put another one in, it will be your newly purchased mated queen who will be killed if there is a fight to the death.

I would be tempted to sieve the bees to be sure that there is no queen, before parting with money for a new one.

 

[beezers]

When I looked at thebeeman site(tuesday), they had outofstock notice on them. But I have managed to buy one from the southdowns area & that should be here by the weekend. If I find a hidden queen in the 14x12 tomorrow I shall put new queen in a nuc.
The suspect cell was chewed down the side, so I will make a CSI style search in that hive before I do anything hasty,thanks for that Lorenz.
If I need any more queens bshoneybees look the way.
Fingers x that my next post is more positive & that I wont be an ex beekeeper.

 

[Arfermo]

Strange - I got one from him Tueday morning.