Thursday, June 29, 2017

Re-Queening Success!

My Carniolan queens arrived on Tuesday this week and I immediately picked them up from UPS. One was hung in the middle of Dave and Pam's colony after a complete hive check and determining that hive was truly queenless.

My Italian colony was next on the list for a hive check during which I discovered the second queen cell I allowed to develop had hatched out and I now have a new, unmarked queen in that hive laying full patterns of brood. Note to Self: If I had been killing all my drones, the queen couldn't breed during the first several days of her life. Keeping drones around is good practice for at least 3/4 of summer.

That meant I had two queens and only one colony that needed a new queen. I checked the Buckfast colony to ensure no queen had hatched. It was queenless so I placed one queen in the middle of a brood box and separated the boxes with a queen excluder. This hive would soon become home to a two-queen colony.

I later received a call for a hive check from a local beekeeper. I determined both of his colonies had swarmed. At this point, with only one extra queen on hand and the late date for re-queening, I suggested he combine both colonies by placing newsprint paper over the top box of one colony and stacking the other colony on top of the paper after making a few slices in the paper for the bees to begin chewing through, slowly combining into one colony. I then pulled one of the new Carniolan queens and gave it to him, removing my queen excluder on the two-queen hive.

I will check these colonies again on 7/1/17 to confirm the new queens are doing well.





4 comments:

  1. Dawn, we have a swarm high in a tree in my next door neighbors yard. We aren't sure if one of our hives swarmed because there are still a lot of bees in both. We have buckfast bees this year. We're not quite sure what to do now. Our son is coming tomorrow to try to capture the swarm if possible and if they are still there. Any guidance/advise from you would be very very much appreciated. Thank you Beth Patterson

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    1. Hello Beth, Without a fire engine ladder, I have never had success capturing a swarm of this nature. I have even set up a hive with ample stores in the frames to attempt to lure the swarm into the new hive boxes. It has never worked for me but you could surely try it.

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  2. HELLO Dawn Cogan. I am a Pastor from Mumbai, India. I am glad to visit your profile on the blogger and the blog post. I am blessed and feel privileged and honored to get connected with you as well as know you and about your teaching interest in hand on science and also interest in the Youth ministry. I love getting connected with the people of God around the globe to be encouraged, strengthened and praying for one another. I have been in the Pastoral ministry for last 38 yrs in this great city of Mumbai a city with a great contrast where richest of rich and the poorest of poor live. we reach out to the poorest of poor with the love of Christ to bring healing to the brokenhearted. We also encourage young and the adults from the west to come to Mumbai with their friends to work with us during their vacation time. we would love to have your young children to come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time. I am sure they will have a life changing experience. Since you have your interest in the youth ministry we would love to have you come to Mumbai to speak to our young people. My email id is : dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com and my name is Diwakar Wankhede. Looking forward to hear from you very soon. God's richest blessings on you, your family and friends.

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    1. Hello Diwakar,
      Your work sounds wonderful. I will forward your invitation onto my pastor.
      Thank You Kindly,
      Dawn

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