Unite or wait for new queen?

[beekake]

Did an AS on a string colony around 5 weeks ago. The daughter colony has failed to raise a queen (as evidenced by test frame over last week) and is full of stores. I was hoping to have a new queen to introduce to this colony, but when I checked the mating nuc today, I found the queen cell I put in there a few weeks ago has not hatched.

I now have a dilemma...do I unite this colony with its parent ( now on 4 supers, so quite a lifting job), or do I just leave one emergency queen to hatch and see what plays out? I really don't want to end up with laying workers...happened to me last year and it was a pain to solve.

Any advice? I feel like I have to make a quick decision.

 

[mbc]

Did an AS on a string colony around 5 weeks ago. The daughter colony has failed to raise a queen (as evidenced by test frame over last week) and is full of stores. I was hoping to have a new queen to introduce to this colony, but when I checked the mating nuc today, I found the queen cell I put in there a few weeks ago has not hatched.

I now have a dilemma...do I unite this colony with its parent ( now on 4 supers, so quite a lifting job), or do I just leave one emergency queen to hatch and see what plays out? I really don't want to end up with laying workers...happened to me last year and it was a pain to solve.

Any advice? I feel like I have to make a quick decision.

In this situation I like to unite to freshen up the queenless box prior to splitting again later when I have a queen available. It seems like a lot of work but I think it pays off in the long run.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Buy a new queen.