Tim asks:
About what percentage of the time would you guess that the bees make a new
queen above the queen excluder and you end up with a two queen hive using
the method that Murray now uses, and Bob used to?

If you move eggs up also and put the old brood nest a full deep above the
excluder many times queen cells are indeed made.

More so if you do not regularly replace your queens and have got old queens
with low pheromone levels.

I tried to only bring up sealed brood about to emerge and not the whole box
as Murray did so I had a small instance of rearing queens above.

 When I did simply bring the whole box up I suppose  20 to 50% made queen
cells.

If you did not return in time to cut cells then the first virgin killed her
sisters and usually you would find an unmated virgin trapped above the
excluder along with any drones moved up on the brood comb.

If you waited very long you would find dead drones and a dead virgin above
the excluder .

 An opening to the outside changes the scenario and you get a laying queen
up but she is of little use because her offspring emerge to late in our area
to provide help with the major honey flow.

The object is not in my opinion to raise a new queen or even have two queens
laying at once but to prevent swarming and open up the brood nest to
encourage the queen to lay a higher percentage of eggs per day.

You can however raise a new queen with the method if you have an upper
entrance.

I use the Dr. Farrar method of two queen and combine (pull the excluder) the
first week of the honey flow which is totally different than what I am
describing.

If you return as often as Murray says you can simply cut the queen cells
out. If not you will find usually a single virgin queen trapped in the top
section if there is no upper entrance to the outside. Queens mate at approx.
75 feet in the air  so she is unmated .

Using the method Murray used I would simply let the bees fill the former
brood cells with honey. I usually did not pull the excluder ( as Murray
does) as brood in the honey house hatching is a pain in my opinion and
enough sealed brood is brought in with honey supers where queens have found
a way past the excluder to lay eggs anyway.

I suppose we average a couple boxes of sealed brood brought in in every
hundred supers even though we are looking. Those bees emerge and don't fly
to the window screen but land in sumps and in water jackets of tanks fouling
the water and are a pain. I my self don't really mind but the help gets
nervous with all those bees flying around.

bob

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::