Franklin Humphrey wrote:
>
> Check the hive to see if there are any eggs.  If  there are any, you have
> laying workers.  If not, you don t have laying workers yet.  Give them a
> frame containing eggs and unsealed brood to deter laying workers.  The danger
> here is that they will raise a queen from  freshly hatched larva.  You may
> wish to let them do that if they will.
>
> If you do have laying workers you have a real problem.  The following works
> most of the time for me:
> Make up a 2 or 3 nuc form another hive, using the new queen, and put it on
> top of the queenless one above a double screen.  When the queen is accepted,
> set the nuc off to the side and carry the old hive some distance away .  Take
> all the frames out of the old hive and lean them up against something .
>  Shake all bees off the hive body and bottom board and return  these to the
> original location.  Next. Shake all bees off the frames ant put the frames
> back in the hive.  Then, put the nuc back on top without the double screen.
>  Most of the laying workers have never been  out of the hive and will get
> lost in the grass.
> When the new queen is accepted reverse the hive bodies so that the queen is
> in the bottom brood chamber.   She should already be laying at this point and
> will build up quickly
>
> Frank Humphrey
 
I do have brood in all stages in the split, I took 2 frames of brood from 2 different hives and put in the new
hive. I will have a new queen Monday, but that will mean that they have been queenless for at least 8 days.
--
***************************
* Charles (Rick) Grubbs   *
* [log in to unmask]       *
* Douglasville, Ga SE USA *
***************************