Worldwide Beekeeping

Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: Wandering Man on August 17, 2020, 11:27:39 pm

Title: Can a hive go 9 days before requeening?
Post by: Wandering Man on August 17, 2020, 11:27:39 pm

We split an aggressive hive today.  We intended to requeen three of our hives this month, anyway, but this hive's aggression caused us to make a split today.

We put part of the hive in a nuc and left the rest in the hive.  Things quieted down pretty quickly.  We still don't know which half has the queen, but we know that the clock is now ticking for us to get a queen into the queenless half.

This evening I learned that my #1 queen supplier won't have queens available until Wednesday, 9 days from today (Monday).  They are 1 1/2 hours away, and we could make the 3 to 4 hour round trip and still get back in time to add the queens late Wednesday.

Or, I can go to my back-up queen producer on Friday.  That is a 2 3/4 hour trip, or about 6 hours round trip, and I could add the new queens on Saturday, only five days from now.

What do you think?  I'm pretty sure the smaller nuc is does not have the queen.  It has two frames of brood at all stages, including eggs and three frames of nectar/honey/pollen.  It looked like the bees were taking care of business when we left it this morning and sticking around.  But, what about in in nine days?  Will I have laying workers?  Or even in five days?

There is a third possibility that is closer, but his bees lean toward the aggressive side, and I'm trying to avoid those kinds of queens.

Title: Re: Can a hive go 9 days before requeening?
Post by: iddee on August 18, 2020, 05:19:42 am

In nine days you will have capped queen cells. The hive or nuc will still be queen right then. Just be sure you remove ALL queen cells the day you install the new one, or they will reject her. It is easy to miss one, so look carefully.

Title: Re: Can a hive go 9 days before requeening?
Post by: RAST on August 18, 2020, 06:20:21 am

Laying workers won't develope until all brood is hatched.

Title: Re: Can a hive go 9 days before requeening?
Post by: Zweefer on August 18, 2020, 09:49:03 am

 :agree:

Title: Re: Can a hive go 9 days before requeening?
Post by: Wandering Man on August 18, 2020, 10:02:07 am

Thanks!  This is the reassurance I needed.

I was reading Iddee's response to 3Reds, and she asked "What if you didn't leave any eggs in the main hive?"  Rast had already answered that question, so I just kept reading.

If I was mistaken and there weren't any eggs left in the main hive, I know for sure there was uncapped brood.  We should have at least 11 days before that brood emerges after being capped.

You folks are awesome!