# Novice error what do I do now?



## Scout25411 (Feb 26, 2012)

I am new to beekeeping I started two hives this year. 2 weeks ago I did my weekly inspection and found eggs but no queen. Then in my next inspection I found no Queen and no eggs (she has been very easy to find thus far because she is nicely marked.) Heart broken I called the guy that has been giving me advice and sold me my bees and hives this year. I drove over and got a new queen. I was taking some brood from the hive that has been doing well and has lots of eggs and was about to put it with the new queen in the hive when I spotted my old Queen :smack now I have a queen and no hive to put her in she is a hygienic queen and my Hubby is attached to her and doesn't want me to take her back, can I buy another hive and a queen-less nuc? Should I replace my original package Queen with the new Queen? I hate to do her in. These hives were established this past spring can I steal some bees and make a nuc in case the existing Queens give me problems. My new queen is in a California queen cage and has some nurse bees with her a sponge with some water and white sugar fondant (I think that's what he said) how long do I have? Hours.. Days? Oh my I can't belive I made such a rookie mistake :ashamed:


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## scrapiron (Jul 23, 2011)

If it were me, I would go ahead and squash the package queen and replace her with the one you just bought. The package queen must be weak/failing due to your finding nothing during inspections. Another point is, package bees a lot of times supercede their queen anyway. So no biggie as far as that goes. However, you are supposed to leave a hive queenless for a couple days before requeening. So if you squash your queen right now, it is still a while before you can install the new one. I am not sure how long you can keep a new queen alive, or how. Mabey someone else will chime in and help out with that part of the process. Prolly spraying her with sugar water once a day or something like that. Good Luck.


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

Are there a lot of bees in the hive? I'd try simply doing a split. Get a new hive set up and carefully take out half the frames, making sure you have honey and brood/eggs evently split between them. If you found the queen during this, make sure you mark which hive she's in. Then in a couple of days you can put the new queen in the queenless hive (check again that the queen is where she's supposed to be). Wonder what the more experienced beekeepers will say though. I'm relatively new at this. 

To keep the new queen and her attendants alive, you have to keep her warm (not sure just what temp but think around 85 ???) Perhaps put them in a small box to help them retain heat out of drafts. Spray them down or use an eye dropper perhaps to put a puddle of syrup under their cage where they can use their tongues to get it???


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Yes you can make up a 5 frame nuc with the newly boughten queen. A made up nuc usally knows it is queen less in 24 hours. You could also doi the split with the new queen in one half again usally 24 hours they know they do not have a queen.

Either way you now have the back up queen in case the old queen is as scrap iron said a failing weak queen. 

Biggest complaint this time of year you hear at bee meetings it seems is the crappy quailty of the queens.

If the old queen proves to be bad you can step on her and marry the split or nuc back using the news paper method.

 Al


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## Scout25411 (Feb 26, 2012)

Thank you!I have been reading and rereading your replies I also contacted the gentleman I've been working with and he agrees that creating a Nuc would be the best option my hubby is picking up a nuc box tomorrow it stormed hard today I hope the weather clears tomorrow. I'm happy that I'll have a back up for my Queens but I'm not 100% sure I know how to set up the nuc from my understanding I take frames with all the stages of development and new bees and move them over. when I move them do I replace them with empty frames or put them on the outside and push the remaining brood back together again? I block the entrance to the nuc install my queen put in an entrance feeder and leave them to release her. do I move the nuc to a different location? Should I do it in the morning, Evening? My queen is still alive and well but I am nervous she has several attendants and the sugar stuff under the queen cage and a sponge I've kept damp, It'll bee 48hrs from when we got her till we can get her installed is there anything else I can do for her? Thank you all for the replies they have truly helped!


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Most common nuc is a 5 frame one. To set the nuc up place all stages of brood in it, I also add one frame of mostly honey just in case the bees can't forage due to a streach of bad weather. I also shake in some extra bees from other frames. A few will go bad to the doner hive but most will stay to cover the brood.
In the doner hive keep all brood left together place the new frames near the out side edge(s) I like to place them between capped honey frames if I can. If you place a frame of mostly honey in the nuc there is no need for a feeder.
An entrance reducer is your choise My nucs have very small entrances to start with.
Build the nuc any time of the day you wish. Keep in mind that mid day most of the foragers will be out so the frames you take covered with bees will mostly be nurse bees as well as the ones you shake in extra.

For the queen and her court Mush your fingers in a bit of capped honey covering it (finger) well. Rub that honey covered honey on the queen cage screen. Queen cages are the Benton 3 hole a wood block with 3 large chamber holes covered in screen.










The other is a JZBZ plastic cage that is sort of a mesh arangement where you can rub the homney all around.










Ya there are others but today they are mostly home made by a bee keeper for their own needs.

I have kept queens in a cage for 3 days by giving them a finger of honey every morning and every evening. When the rain stopped and it warmed up I insatlled the queens and they did just fine.

 Al


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

""""Oh my I can't belive I made such a rookie mistake """"
don't let it bother you because 10 years from now we all will be making a rookie mistake now and then ,, and 50 years from then others will be making the same rookie mistake's


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## Scout25411 (Feb 26, 2012)

Thank you I love the pics neither is the cage she was in but it did have a candy plug for them to free her, the nuc is set up and I checked twice to make sure the old queen wasn't added to the nuc (I don't need any more Queen trouble haha) now I just sit and watch and wait until I can check to make sure she is freed. I love beekeeping, though the waiting is so hard I have to fight the urge to do bee inspections every day. I live in WV do you think my nuc can overwinter? What are my other options? thanks again to everyone your support and advice is AWESOME!


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

you should pot WV in your profile since many bee keeping questions and answers are different in many areas.
I've been told that you can over winter a nuc of bees here in Michigan, but my attemps in two years proved I couldn't have that luck. I would just let the new queen in the nuc to get a good start then transfer them in to a deep. We over winter in 2 deeps here in Michigan but from what I remember of WV winters they are not as long and cold as here. A single deep and a medium may bee all you need, to be safe go with two deeps. stilll plenty of time.


 Al


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