Sunny - light wind - Temp 65
I found a laying mated queen in the 3rd hive I am starting that came from the swarm from Christin's original hive. I also spotted a queen in Christin's hive as well. That queen has not started laying in numbers as we would like to see. We'll will give it another week or so and see if her egg laying picks up.
All 3 hives look healthy. I added another honey super to the 2 original hives. I'm still feeding the 3rd hive (swarm hive) to build up their numbers.
I purchased a 2012 mated Minnesota Hygienic queen today for $18 for Christin's hive. When I checked her hive on April 4, I did not spot any eggs or a queen. Today, I spotted her (after I bought the new queen). Since I have 4 queens now, I decided make a 4th hive.
To do this, I removed 3 frames of brood in all stages from my hive (along with the bees on those frames). I also added 2 full frames of honey/pollen in a 5 frame nuc. I brought this nuc back to Charlotte. I closed off the entrance to the Nuc not allowing the bees to fly. I want them to be confined for 24 hours so they quickly find out they no longer have a queen. I will introduce the newly purchased queen to this "queenless" hive on Sunday. By waiting 24 hours before introducing the new queen, the probability the bees will accept her increases.
It should take 1-3 days for the bees to eat away the soft candy from the cage entrance and release the queen.
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