Thursday, July 14, 2011

Try, try again ...

Well the first Carniolan queen I introduced to the nuc didn't work out. I saw her out at the 5 day point, but not after that. Then, bees from the other hives began robbing the feeder - I think they either killed her or drove her out. There was no new brood showing on any of the frames ( except for the brood that was there when I split into the nuc). So... picked up another queen, split two more frames of brood and moved the nuc about 75 feet from the hives. I also removed the division board feeder and placed two frames of honey and about 1/4 of a Mega-Bee patty in there for them. I put the queen cage in on Monday evening after I did the split, but left the cap on the candy port for a couple of days. Last night, I checked them and they seemed fine with her, so I removed the cap from the candy and will check them again this weekend. I really hope this takes, as I want to try the Carniolans.
The fourth hive, from a package installed on 6/18, is building up nicely. These are Italians, as are the other two hives.

2 comments:

  1. Ralph,
    This is a beautiful site! Thanks again for your help with "my girls" tonight. I'll keep you posted on what I find out.

    Sharon

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  2. Bonny from East HamptonOctober 2, 2011 at 8:31 PM

    How's that Carniolan Queen doing? Are you starting to see darker colored workers in the hive? I like your blog it looks great!

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