Buying 3 new queens, what do I do with the old queens

[Jen]

I had one hive. Then I had two hives. Then I had three hives. Then, I combined and had two hives. Now I have three hives. By the time I get queens in the mail, I may be down to one hive.

How many queens should I buy?

[apisbees]

I would buy 3 and requeen every thing and pull a nuc if need be.
The old queens? If it was me I would pull 1 frame with each queen and place them in a nuc box and let them build up slowly on their own. As they expand and fill the nuc, move them in to larger hives.

[Jen]

When does the queen quit laying for the season? summer solstice, or winter solstice?

[Perry]

I would buy 3 and requeen every thing and pull a nuc if need be.
The old queens? If it was me I would pull 1 frame with each queen and place them in a nuc box and let them build up slowly on their own. As they expand and fill the nuc, move them in to larger hives.

 

Winter is when she slows down and stops (in most areas).

[Jen]

Well that what I thought! but I have now heard that the queen stops laying on the summer solstice. That can't be right! that's the middle of June. If that's the case, I'm doomed.

[LazyBkpr]

No they will lay all summer and start tapering back in the fall usually.

   Too late to talk about ordering your queens, already done so will leave it at that!!

[Jen]

Snarking ~ you're funny

Whaaat?..... you mean I can't cancel that order?? You're not allowing me to be a typical female?

[LazyBkpr]

LOL  Is there ANY way for me to stop you?  That information might just make me a Billionaire.  Tell me and I will share!!!!

   I would have gotten two and combined the two weakest hives.. unless of course you are OK with three hives.
   As far as the old queens...  I would probably NOT even give them away...  its hard to say without being able to be there, see the management, and the responses they had to it.
   I know its a hard thing to do, I have difficulty pinching queens.. even Four year old queens.....  but.....  I built a contraption that makes it a little more fun;

   

[Jen]

Scott- ""LOL  Is there ANY way for me to stop you?  That information might just make me a Billionaire.  Tell me and I will share!!!!""

     That valuable information will never leave my soul bound and gagged!
 
Scott- ""I would have gotten two and combined the two weakest hives""

Yes, we are back to three. However, something crossed our minds yesterday as the swarm was afloat. The day before we left for the coast. I combined a very small hive with this hive (to the left) that just swarmed yesterday. We felt pretty confident that all was well. To our knowledge, this bottom deep (a caught swarm to the left) has never swarmed. But It was starting to need room, that's why we consulted with the forum and then did the newspaper thingy.

The the day after we got home, it swarmed. Apis says that it's unusual for a swarm to swarm.
 

[Jen]

Scott ""As far as the old queens...  I would probably NOT even give them away...""

   I'm not opposed to pinching these swarmy queens, not wanting to bless them onto someone else. However, hubs came up with the idea that we could make nucs with the old queens, let them get strong, hive them up (or not), and he would take them to his dad's place which is a half an hour south, deep in alpine country. We would make sure that they were healthy and strong before planting them there. They would be pretty much on their own. Hubs goes to his dad's every 2-3 weeks and can check on them. They would essentially be "Hubby's Hives" 

See, if these bees love to swarm, they could just swarm themself happy down at his dad's house, maybe even swarm themself out completely. I like the idea but it's still on the table. 

[LazyBkpr]

not a bad idea, depending on if those swarm happy hives have enough bees left to split??  How many frames do the queens have laid up?
   Granted, with laying queens it only takes a couple of good frames to get a nuc / new hive started, Just making sure, and I think hubby having his own hives is a GRAND idea...   chances are he is going to be going to his fathers place a bit more often for a while?

[Jen]

I'll have to be checking this out and logging what's on each frame. It's something I want to do before the new queens get installed. I'll letcha know what I find.

I'm not certain at all if the hive that swarmed yesterday has a queen in it. after we were almost done putting those swarm bees into it's hive, we found a dead queen in the bottom of the plastic bin :(  Funny! cause I caught a queen off of the branch and carefully placed her into the bin. Can't imagine what killed her. Maybe there is two queens?

[Riverrat]

I have seen queens quit laying in the hot of the summer during a dearth.  Watch the forum in August and see how many newer keeps post I think I have a queenless hive

[Jen]

That's good to know rat! Please be kind and remind us of that 

[Bakersdozen]

The old queens? If it was me I would pull 1 frame with each queen and place them in a nuc box and let them build up slowly on their own. As they expand and fill the nuc, move them in to larger hives.

I agree with apisbees. 
Even if you don't want that many hives in your back yard, you could sell the nucs to another beekeeper. 

[Jen]

This is such a quandry because part of me says, Yes, let's give them to another beekeeper that wants to expand his apiary... And runn after the swarms that are swarming from the swarms ~ Really!?!

Then I like the idea of having the nucs on hubby's dad's property, and just let them swarm themselves silly into the tall alpine trees.

[LazyBkpr]

If informed that they were swarmy and the other beek still wanted them there could be no argument or hard feelings. The downside to giving them to Hubby would be when they do swarm themselves to death he might be a little disheartened... Might take a lot of kisskisshughugpatpat to cure.

[Jen]

Scott- ""The downside to giving them to Hubby would be when they do swarm themselves to death he might be a little disheartened... Might take a lot of kisskisshughugpatpat to cure.""

Snark!    that would definately go on the bargaining table.

We did chat again today about this option. He said that it would be perfectly okay to allow them to do their bee thing naturally on dad's property. If they're able to survive and prosper giving us alpine honey, Great! If they swarm themselves to death, at least they did it there way... you know.. Frank Sinatra style 

[Beeboy]

I have seen queens quit laying in the hot of the summer during a dearth.  Watch the forum in August and see how many newer keeps post I think I have a queenless hive

Carnolians will stop laying when the flow stops. That why some people like them. That's why some people don't like them.

[riverbee]

as do russian bees...