# surplus queens



## Jan sweet (Apr 13, 2015)

Greetings, long-time reader first-time poster.
Basically we have two extra queens. 3 weak hives, a catched swarm, a spilt, and a new hive of packaged bees. 

In a nutshell, we ordered queens for a hive that swarmed and left the hive queenless, and we split a hive and put some brood frames in a nuc.
so either the hive or the nuc would need a queen. Simple enough. The Queens were sent priority 2-day mail (I bet some of you know where I am going with this already).
After a week of no-show queens, we figured they were lost. and if we did get them after over a week of no water and who knows what kind of temperature ranges (North central Florida) they endured, we figured if they were not dead they would be too weak to make a go of it. My husband drove to north Florida an got two queens. They have been placed in the hives, all is well.

Then! Today, eight days later, the package arrives and I get everything ready to do the documentation to try and get the insurance to payout for the dead queens. And LO! They were alive. Every one of them. The companion workers and the queens looked fine. I gave them water, and they perked up and look extra fine. (mentally they have been through a lot, but...) so now we have a problem we have 2 extra queens.
Our first thought was to make two more splits, but we have one hive that swarmed and we requeened it and it is at half capacity. We caught the swarm that swarmed and have it in a nuc and they are going gangbusters, but they are also at half capacity. Then the hive we were afraid would swarm we split and added the queen to it. So they both are at half capacity. In the third original hive, we _might_ be able to take two frames of brood, but then we will have two weak hives and that does not seem like a good idea. The new hive of packaged bees are working their little tarsals off making a new hive. I want to leave them alone. _But maybe I don't?_

I had chalked these girls up for dead so if it all of this fails we have already requeened the hives that needed the queens. It is not a really big deal, but- they have been *paid for!* and if we can salvage them, then two new hives are a good thing.
I thought we could try and put another brood box on top of an existing hive, leave the queen excluder between the two brood boxes with a piece of newspaper between them and see what happens. We have some brood frames already drawn out in the chest freezer so that is not an issue, but will five little bees be enough to take care of a queen who I assume will get busy laying eggs right away? (unless she is just too emotionally scarred from all this brouhaha)
We would add a feeder,will the little bees be able to keep the queen going with sugar water? There are no workers to chew her out of the queen cage. There are no workers to kill her either, so I guess we could release her right away? and again, maybe she is damaged and is slowly dying and we are spinning our wheels, but that seems to be our mode of transportation lately, so we are getting used to it. We will be doing this to two existing hives, or, we could do it to the two new nuclear hives. ? ? ? 
Any suggestions? oh, yes they are from Hawaii and our supplier just got them in so they have traveled more in the past 2 weeks than most insects.
Jan Sweet 
Northcentral Florida
(The more I know, the more certain I am that I don't know anything.)


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

yikes too many queens

take the 2 bigest hives you have and remove, I frame of emerging brood with adhering bees. make sure the queen is NOT on that frame.
put those in a NUC box and intro the queens to the 1 frame.
-place queen and attendants in the box with the frame for 2 days
day 3 release the queen and attendants
leave her there for a week to 10 days. then check for eggs.
once they are laying, you have a mini Nuc

the queen with 5 bees is not going to do anything, but perish, a frame should coast her along.
limit the entrance to 2 bee widths.

If in 3 weeks they look fine, lay fine and are still kicking then slowly add a few bees at a time to boost them.

the queen may be alive but damaged, 1 frame of bees is not too much to offer to find out if they still are ok.

PM me in 3 weeks if they are alive and we can work on the next steps, too much to worry about now.
It is 50 50 they are all right. temp fluxuations and dry may have caused some damage.
give them a drop of water every day they are not in a hive.

check with your bee buddies to see if any one is ready for a split, maybe someone you know has a need.

GG

GG


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## Jan sweet (Apr 13, 2015)

Thank you for your advice.
One frame I think we can pull from the large hive that we split. They had frames solid with brood when we split them. The weaker hive might have a frame to spare _by now_... 

Everyone that I know that were beekeepers in my area gave it up when mites and beetles, and moths and etc broke their spirit. I don't know why we keep trudging through. My spirit was broken so long ago that I think I may just be on autopilot. or now it is just a challenge we refuse to bow to. not sure.

Thank you for your reply. We will make some mini nucs and see what becomes of it. I am almost tempted to have my husband drive up to Ga. tomorrow and get two packages of bees, but then there is the 'throwing of good money after bad' issues. The queens may die and then I have bees and no queen- which starts the crazy train all over again.
yeah. I think we will make mini nucs and see where it goes. 
Thanks again.


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## joebeewhisperer (May 13, 2020)

Gray Goose said:


> leave her there for a week to 10 days. then check for eggs.
> once they are laying, you have a mini Nuc


Yep. I was thinking if this was my problem I'd try and make as small a box as possible. A single frame (could put a frame of foundation on either side) would be good. In my case I have some styrofoam minis and a cup of nurses and a cup of syrup would bank them for a while. But a drawn frame (with adequate helpers) is best if you have it to spare. Basically how to bank a queen with a small entourage. I do this in the fall, but with a slightly larger workforce. In northern FL, chilled brood is probably not a problem from here on out. That would be my chief concern.


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

Roger Patterson’s “a frame of brood and a frame of food” seems appropriate here. He’s shared excellent luck with that message. Sealed brood he says needs less of a cluster to keep them warm, and they very quickly turn into two frames of bees. 

Check out his “two frame nuc” video - there are more if you do a quick search.


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## Jan sweet (Apr 13, 2015)

Lee Bussy said:


> Roger Patterson’s “a frame of brood and a frame of food” seems appropriate here. He’s shared excellent luck with that message. Sealed brood he says needs less of a cluster to keep them warm, and they very quickly turn into two frames of bees.
> 
> Check out his “two frame nuc” video - there are more if you do a quick search.


That was our thought, we do not need to be giving them any larva to maintain. We were in the hives a week ago and they were about to burst then. Things happen so quickly that we just won't know what is available until we look. Everything was working out so well. I should have expected a hiccup.
The queens are still going strong on the kitchen counter. The air is on so I have them out of the draft and hopefully, the girls can stay warm until this storm front passes through. The weather can change on a dime here and the best-laid plans are scrapped in a minute.
I will keep you all posted on what becomes of what.

On a side note, I was looking over other posts and found one on registering the hives. We have tried for years to get that done. As far as we are concerned, the more knowledgeable eyes we have on the girls the better they will be.
I am grateful for this forum and all of you that make it work. 
Thank you all.


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