Comments on: Can you afford emergency queens?

By: Lyle B.

Lyle B. — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 01:23:40 +0000

When crowding and then removing the swarm cells you have caused, you better make sure you get them all or the will still swarm. If you remove the queen they will still build swarm cells and then wait for one to hatch and swarm anyway.Good Luck and GOD BLESS,Lyle

By: Robo

Robo — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:12:23 +0000

Is there any reason that when you trigger swarming by crowding that you would have to cut out the cells? Can’t you just let it alone and let the strong survive?
The only reason to cut them out is if you want more than one queen to survive. You can just leave them and let the first to hatch survive, this is exactly what happens with ferals. The draw back is you are not taking full advantage of all the resources used to create the multiple cells. But in your case of only wanting one queen, it meets your need, just not the most efficient.

when swarm cells are built how long do you have to get the old queen out to prevent an actual swarm? Will once a week inspections insure that you won’t just miss it?
As I’m sure you have already learned, nothing is definite when dealing with bees, but normally the swarm won’t leave until the queen cells are capped, so a weekly check should give you a good chance. Once a hive gets the swarming impulse, it can be difficult to get them out of swarming mode. If you go this route, I would suggest a shook swarm as used in making comb honey to break the swarming impulse. Basically you remove your queen and shake 2/3rds of the bees into a new hive of foundation. The lack of brood simulates that they have swarmed. Good Luck

rob….

By: David LaFerney

David LaFerney — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:27:10 +0000

Thanks for the helpful reply. Of course I’m new to bee keeping, and only have one (new) hive this year, so I want to plan my next move before I have a rush situation. I think that queen raising is something that I will want to do in the future, but my first concern is to turn my one hive into two so that I’m only half as likely to suffer a total loss. So, for now (or soon I hope) I just need 1 new queen. Is there any reason that when you trigger swarming by crowding that you would have to cut out the cells? Can’t you just let it alone and let the strong survive?

Also, if you don’t mind – when swarm cells are built how long do you have to get the old queen out to prevent an actual swarm? Will once a week inspections insure that you won’t just miss it? Being new I already have to restrain myself to keep from constantly pestering them. I’ll get over it with time.

Again thanks – great site. You’re a good communicator.

By: Robo

Robo — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:57:51 +0000

Can you trigger them to generate swarm cells by crowding the colony, and then once a cell appears head off the swarm by splitting the old queen into a nuc? On the theory that the main colony won’t swarm because it has no queen, and the queen nuc wont swarm because it has no work force. Why is that a bad idea (if it is)? Sure you can, and it is a much better option than a walk away split. The drawn back is that you are doing perhaps just as much manipulation of the hive and getting fewer or joined swarm cells, have to handle them and potentially crush damage then the cut them out. Why not just use the effort and resource to rear queens? Or how about putting the queen from a strong colony into a nuke and then breaking out the bottoms of the cells on some young (less than 36 hours old) brood to help encourage them not to make a queen out of older larvae. I'm not completely familiar withe the method, but believe it still requires them to float the larvae out to a vertical cell, I think the Hopkins or Miller method would be better. It isn’t so much the $20 for a new queen as it is a desire to try for survivor genetics from a local drone - I know it also might be from a neighboring beek as well, but if you don’t try… People often confuse my concern with supersedure/emergency cells as an issue with raising your own queens, when my position is quite the contrary. I am a firm proponent of acclimatized and feral bees and would strongly encourage everyone to raise their own queens. Just be sure to use a method of queen rearing that optimizes the chances of good quality queens.

By: David LaFerney

David LaFerney — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 05:57:46 +0000

Or how about putting the queen from a strong colony into a nuke and then breaking out the bottoms of the cells on some young (less than 36 hours old) brood to help encourage them not to make a queen out of older larvae. As outlined here – http://mdasplitter.com/ I’m sure you have an opinion about that.

It isn’t so much the $20 for a new queen as it is a desire to try for survivor genetics from a local drone – I know it also might be from a neighboring beek as well, but if you don’t try…