Finally took the time to inspect my bee hives. One was pretty strong coming out of winter . I decided it needed a simulated swarm, so I found the queen and put here and 4 frames of brood and nurse bees in a separate hive body. This fools the original hive into thinking the hive swarmed with the queen . They will create some queen cells to make a new queen. Hopefully she will emerge and have a successful mating flight and return to the hive and keep the hive going.
Most of the time it goes smoothly and they never miss a beat. Sometimes the queen doesn't make it back and you have to step in and make sure you don't wind up with a laying worker. Laying worker is just an unmated female bee that will only make male bees from her unfertilized eggs.
Most of the time it goes smoothly and they never miss a beat. Sometimes the queen doesn't make it back and you have to step in and make sure you don't wind up with a laying worker. Laying worker is just an unmated female bee that will only make male bees from her unfertilized eggs.
