struggling nuc or combine

[tony350i]

Hi,

I made a split from what looked like a queen less colony that had q/cells and made one nuc with the q/cells that where bunched together and
Took a frame of eggs and brood from another colony and gave it to the other nuc,

33 days later I have my first eggs in the nuc that had the queen cells in and the other nuc did raise a queen cell but still no eggs,

So the nuc that still has shown no sign of eggs or queen is in theory still queen less, so I gave it another frame with a small patch of 15 to 20 day old eggs 4 days ago and it looks like they have moved one of the eggs and put it in the queen cell that was already on the brood frame,

Have they done this coz they isnÂ’t enough young bees to draw new wax for a fresh queen cell,

If this is the case that this nuc hasnÂ’t enough young bees then will this queen be any good,

My winter OSR is all most finished and my honey yield has sufferd a bit on my queen right hives with putting empty brood frames in with my small cell thing I an doing, and in couple of dayÂ’s I will be moving my bees to a spring OSR that has just come into flower and if the feed back on this nuc that is struggling isnÂ’t good I will combine with one off the stronger colonyÂ’s.
I donÂ’t want to take any more brood from the stronger colonies if I can help it coz I need every bee I can get (or do I) for this extra flow that I am lucky enough to go to.

Please any ideas

Thanks Tony

PS the post bit of a panic with the buckfast cecropia queens has work out ok. With both queens I have seen brood at all stages but no emerging nurses bees yet.

[ June 11, 2006, 02:23 PM: Message edited by: tony350i ]

[Michael Bush]

> it looks like they have moved one of the eggs and put it in the queen cell that was already on the brood frame

Are you certain there wasn't already an egg in the queen cell?

[tony350i]

yes the brood frame came from the nuc that had just started laying, and all the eggs were standing up in the cells when i put it in and the queen cell was empty.

[ June 11, 2006, 02:37 PM: Message edited by: tony350i ]

[George Fergusson]

>Are you certain there wasn't already an egg in the queen cell?

Heh smile.gif

I still consider this an unanswered question. I asked Tony Jadczak how eggs get into queen cups a few weeks ago when he was examining my apiary and he shrugged and said "Eh. Who cares?" which is perhaps the best answer to the question I've received to date smile.gif

For what it's worth, I found an egg in a queen cup a few days earlier that was clearly and distinctly laying on it's side, not on it's end. I took this to be possible evidence that the egg had been placed there by a worker and not laid by the queen. Alas, that hive was destined to be our cell finisher and all the queen cells got squished so I can't say what the fate of that egg would have been.

George-

[tony350i]

When I first looked at this brood frame in the donor nuc it didnÂ’t have any eggs in it at all and I was looking at the way the empty q/cell had itÂ’s top opened and was thinking what a neat job the virgin queen or house bees had made of it.

And I was thinking that there wasnÂ’t a queen in there, all of the brood frames were full of nectar etc,

I went home thinking about it that night and decided the next day that I will take a frame of all stages from my q/right colony and try again.
Well that is what I did went down took a frame out the nuc and sat it on the side and then took a frame from the q/right colony and shock the bees of and added that to the nuc then added another empty brood frame to fill the gap in the q/right hive, the frame that I took from the nuc I took with me back to my pick up when I noticed this brood frame had day old eggs about 15 to 20 of them so I turn round and put them in the nuc box that I started this post with and 4 dayÂ’s later the queen cell that was on this frame had the egg which is laying in a c shape with the magic milky food and is no bigger then the other eggs that were in the other cells.


Tony

[Michael Bush]

>For what it's worth, I found an egg in a queen cup a few days earlier that was clearly and distinctly laying on it's side, not on it's end.

The eggs are alive and move over time. They lay down just before they hatch. That's not a differnt egg, it's the same one in a different stage of development.

[George Fergusson]

>The eggs are alive and move over time.

Well that makes sense. I sort of figured at some point they lay over on their side. I'd just never seen one on it's side before, they've always been on-end. I didn't take it as irrefutable evidence that bees put eggs in queen cups smile.gif

[tony350i]

All the eggs on this brood frame where standing up on end so they must have been one day old eggs.

4 days later I open up the nuc to see if they had made any queen cells, I took the brood fame out to have a look and all the eggs were in the c shape stage and all had the milky food with them.

I turn the frame up side down and looked in the queen cell that was empty 4 dayÂ’s ago and there was an egg on its side in the c shape with a little more milky food around it.

The donor nuc that had reared its own queen is where I took the brood frame from and the eggs in the frame were the first batch that she had laid and I know this for a fact because I had done a compete inspection off all the brood box the day before and there wasnÂ’t any egg or brood of any stages and all the brood cells had been filled with nectar and some pollen.

My self, I think that the bees have moved the egg to the queen cell.

Do you think this queen will be any good or should a pinch it and combine it with one of the hive that I am moving to another field crop tomorrow.


Thanks Tony

[Michael Bush]

I'd let them raise a queen and see what happens.