What to do with a queen?

[ArmucheeBee]

I have a queen who is down to only about 10-12 workers.  Any suggestions on what I can do?  No one around me has a need to replace an old queen.  Any way to keep her alive until the spring when I may get a swarm to add her to?

[Michael Bush]

Unless you can get some bees somewhere (a few from a strong hive maybe?) they will not be able to get going again.

[IndianaHoney]

If this queen is in a hive, you can bring her and the workers inside in a closed up nuc box. As MB said, they won't be able to get going again without more bees. But if she makes it to spring by some chance, you could give her a couple frames of bees and brood.

However you have to question why she is down to 10-12 workers. Was there a disease of some kind? Did you find dead bees? If not this could be a case of CCD and you may not want to save them (except for research). Maybe she has bad genetics, etc.

[JP]

I have a queen who is down to only about 10-12 workers.  Any suggestions on what I can do?  No one around me has a need to replace an old queen.  Any way to keep her alive until the spring when I may get a swarm to add her to?

Place her in a vile and use her for swarm lure. She sounds inferior or old.


...JP

[ArmucheeBee]

She's probably not inferior. 
She came from a cutout in September, we were in a drought, and it was the dearth.  So they never had time to get built up.  She was a good layer even in the fall so I'd like to keep her and the potential feral genetics she has.

[JP]

She's probably not inferior. 
She came from a cutout in September, we were in a drought, and it was the dearth.  So they never had time to get built up.  She was a good layer even in the fall so I'd like to keep her and the potential feral genetics she has.

I see. Good luck with her, just maybe she'll survive til spring, then you could do a two frame nuc with brood added to get her kick started with some backup support.


...JP

[ArmucheeBee]

Thanks for all the info.  I got a frame of bees/honey from a friend yesterday.  I'll check to see if they have freed her after work today.  Now my other queen is getting down to just a few workers, so I'll have to do the same thing for her.  I'm ordering some packages and starting early this year!  No more late season cutouts unless I add them to other hives.  Learning, learning, and learning.