Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Raising Queens => Topic started by: Les on May 04, 2017, 04:59:49 pm
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It appears that the queen did not make it with the cut out we did last week. Been thru the hive three times and no trace of her, eggs or larva. Previously, I started a NUC from my main hive moving the old queen into the NUC with brood and honey frames. The hive I removed the queen from has already started queen cells aplenty so I thought perhaps I would transfer a couple of capped queen cells over to the cut out hive. Pulling the queen cells off was not as easy as I thought it would be. As a result, the queen cells got a couple tears in the top portion. I still moved them over and attached them to the comb but I am wondering if they will still be viable and will the bees repair the cell?
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Bees will repair a lot of damage to queen cells overnight. :)
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Lee, you were right.....they fixed those queens cells perfectly. Now I wait!
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Good luck and keep us updated!!
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When transferring a queen cell, take a knife and cut out around the cell leaving a healthy margin of comb (1/2" or so). Then on the frame you are putting it on cut out a hole in the comb matching the margin and fill in the blank with the queen cell.