New Queens

[afretired]

Well I have two hives that are not doing much. So, I decided I had better requeen them before it gets any worse. I decided to give Purvis Brother's Queens a try.  I called and Dan took the order, said they would ship the queens today and I would get them tomorrow.  This morning before he shipped them he checked the weather forecast for my location (central KY). Called me on my cell phone to get my opinion on the shipment.  Since we are in the middle of some record high temps, he recommended we wait till next week to ship them.  That impressed me, so we will see how things go next week.

Dave

[Michael Bush]

Waiting is a good plan.  I haven't had much luck if the temps are in the 90's or above.  80's works well.

[afretired]

Well, it looks like I'll be on hold for another week.  Highs bumping around 100 degrees again this week. I know it would be hard on the new queens, but I'm more concerned with my health right now.  This afternoon I needed to do a little work to get things ready. So I suited up and poked around for about an hour in the 98 degree heat.  I don't believe I could have stood it much longer.  Better wait for coller times.

Dave

[afretired]

The weather is looking better this week, so I've been getting ready for the new queens.  Last Wednesday I put a queen excluder between the two deep boxes on the two hives.  My hope was to give the new eggs time to hatch (4 days) and then I could figure out which box had the queen since one box should have eggs and he other wouldn't. Well this evening I tore into the first hive.  I did a quick look in the top box, no noticeable eggs, so I thought the queen might be in the bottom box.  So I then started frame by frame looking for the old queen. Boy did I have a mess.  This hive is hot anyway, and the more I looked the hotter they got and the hotter I got.  By the way, do you know what a bad noise is? I figured it out, a couple of mad bees on the inside of the veil. I sure am glad my hives are out of sight of anyone. I know I looked like a real idiot out there running and slapping and trying to get those zippers opened.  Well back to the hives.  Anyway I looked real close I couldn't find the queen, nor could I find any eggs, in either box.  There were no queen cells so I assume there must be a queen, if they are queenless, how long does it take for them to develop queen cells?  The new queens will be here Wednesday, If I can't find the old queens, what is the best course of action?

Dave

[Michael Bush]

>If I can't find the old queens, what is the best course of action?

The best plan is find the old queens.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenspotting.htm

[rdy-b]

try  switching frames of brood from one hive to the other buton it up and wait 45 minutes or so she should be on that frame    MB I cant belive it i spoted that queen and i didnt even peak RDY-B

[afretired]

Michael
You sure don't beat arond the bush. So I guess there isn't an option other than finding the queen.
I got an earlier start this afternoon looking for the queens and found them!   Boy was I tickled  .  If I would have read your article before I went out I probably wouldn't have had any trouble yesterday.  Today went a lot better.  I decided to take a flash light to help in looking in the cells for the eggs.  In the hive that I have been having a lot of trouble with, I still could not find any eggs. In the other hive the flashlight helped me to see the eggs. Once I found eggs, I went ahead and found the queen fairly fast.

One last comment, your articles really help.

Thanks

Dave

[Michael Bush]

Glad I could help.  If you don't find the old queens then it is very unlikely you will succeed at introducing the new ones.  Bees with a queen are not interested in an outsider.