Subject: Re: Help!.....I Need a Queen!

From: [email-masked] (Pollinator)
Date: 27 Aug 1995 10:00:42 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>, Nate Saal <[email-masked]> writes:

>Subject:	Help!.....I Need a Queen!
>From:	Nate Saal <[email-masked]>
>Date:	21 Aug 1995 23:27:38 GMT
>
>My hive lost its queen a while back and I got a new one to replace
>her.  Looks like 
>as I was introducing her, a laying worker took over and so my
>replacement queen 
>didn't take.
>
>Does anybody know of any apiaries that might still be shipping
>queens?  I know it's 
>late in the season, but I'd rather not lose my hive if I can help it.
>
>I was going to try dumping the bees away from the hive and then
>requeening in hopes 
>that the laying worker(s) can't get back to the hive.  Any other
>suggestions for 
>ridding a hive of laying workers???
>
>
>Subject:	Help!.....I Need a Queen!
>From:	Nate Saal <[email-masked]>
>Date:	21 Aug 1995 23:27:38 GMT
>
>My hive lost its queen a while back and I got a new one to replace
>her.  Looks like 
>as I was introducing her, a laying worker took over and so my
>replacement queen 
>didn't take.
>
>Does anybody know of any apiaries that might still be shipping
>queens?  I know it's 
>late in the season, but I'd rather not lose my hive if I can help it.
>
>I was going to try dumping the bees away from the hive and then
>requeening in hopes 
>that the laying worker(s) can't get back to the hive.  Any other
>suggestions for 
>ridding a hive of laying workers???

   Once you have laying workers, it is extremely difficult to get a new
queen accepted.  It has already failed once, why waste another queen. 

   If you can get a nuc from another beekeeper, it is about your last hope
of getting the hive off and going for this season.

   A nuc is a laying queen with 3-5 frames of brood and workers.  This
will provide the young bees that your hive needs to get back in balance. 
Right now, all your bees are old, and, even if you could get a queen
established, you will go into winter with very poor chances of survival.

   If you can't find a nuc available locally, it might be best to just
hang it up for this season, and try again next spring.

   It is always a good idea to keep more than one hive.  I always
recommend a minimum of two.  Then when your hive became queenless, you
could have supplied a frame or two of brood, as you introduced your queen.
 That would greatly increase chances of acceptance, as you would have
young bees hatching around her, and caring for her.

   Most of the larger queen breeders who advertise in bee magazines ship
fall queens.  They are normally used for requeening good hives on a
scheduled basis.  Commercial beekeepers would normally combine queenless
hives back with a good hive, as requeening is almost sure to fail, this
late.

[email-masked]
Dave Green       PO Box 1215,  Hemingway,  SC   29554