# What now



## richr58 (Jul 23, 2014)

In July my top bar was nearly full end to end. Decided to do a split. Upon further inspection found several capped and several uncapped queen cells. Moved the queen 3 bars of capped brood and 3 bars of stores to new box. That turned out great almost full again. The old hive we cut out all but 5 of the biggest queen cells ditched the rest. Yesterday noticed the only capped brood is all drone cannot find a queen. My question is 1 what should we have done differently 2 what now with a queenless hive ?


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Just guessing but something killed the queen in the queenless one. Going to say a bird or dragonfly ate it. Maybe a Mack truck or an aircraft. Nothing you did was wrong. 

Now you need to intro some young brood from your queen right colony and let them drones hatch. Either that or buy a queen from someone. Sounds like you have laying workers.
Make sure you don't move the queen. Good luck.

Not sure about letting too many drones hatch. Might consider killing some of them with your hive tool.
The bees will recycle the protein.


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## Bees of SC (Apr 12, 2013)

I agree with a bird or truck, how ever, DON"T buy and put a queen in the hive now. The worker bees think they have a queen with the laying workers, probably more than one, will kill the new queen. I would not wast a frame of brood, you will have to put new brood in the hive every week befor they MAY accept a new queen---you will bee about 2 months down the road before a new mated queen...Shake them out near the other hive for a strong winter hive.... This is JMO...


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## richr58 (Jul 23, 2014)

Why would we need to shake them " near " the other hive.

I had thought about combining the hives, but was not sure how to do this with out a big fight. I have kept Warres the past 2 years, not been in this spot before. By the way I like top bar management style more, but that is beside the point. 

If I was going to make one out of the two how do I do that.


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## Bees of SC (Apr 12, 2013)

If you just combined them the laying workers and the bees from that hive may kill the real queen. If you shake them the laying workers will bee stopped from going in the queen right hive. Look it up on the search form.. JMO but try it your way...


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## rmcpb (Aug 15, 2012)

+1 ^^


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## richr58 (Jul 23, 2014)

Bees of SC said:


> If you just combined them the laying workers and the bees from that hive may kill the real queen. If you shake them the laying workers will bee stopped from going in the queen right hive. Look it up on the search form.. JMO "but try it your way...


Bees

Not saying I had a better idea, :s I was asking how to combine the two, just didn't have an idea why to shake them out. Reread one of my top bar books last night, this is what they recommended with a laying worker hive, they said trying to turn them is very very difficult, so I guess that is the direction I'll go this week end. Reap some honey and feed some nectar to the strong hive, get them filled up for winter. Way bummed out was hoping to have 2 from one, ill try again next spring and set up a few nucs with the extra queen cells for insurance.


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## Bees of SC (Apr 12, 2013)

richr,, I have tried the combining of a good hive and laying workers with news paper, did not go well. Tried the add brood for 3 weeks, took to much time, didn't work either, plus it would take @ a up to a month to get a queen mated and laying and then the brood has to hatch. This time of year it is best to shake them to have a strong hive to overwinter and split next spring..Watch YOUTUBE donthefatbeeman, he will show you how to do it..Good luck, they will grow and you can do it. Keep them warm and fed till March..
Sam


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## richr58 (Jul 23, 2014)

Bees of SC said:


> richr,, I have tried the combining of a good hive and laying workers with news paper, did not go well. Tried the add brood for 3 weeks, took to much time, didn't work either, plus it would take @ a up to a month to get a queen mated and laying and then the brood has to hatch. This time of year it is best to shake them to have a strong hive to overwinter and split next spring..Watch YOUTUBE donthefatbeeman, he will show you how to do it..Good luck, they will grow and you can do it. Keep them warm and fed till March..
> Sam


thanks Sam


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