Can't find queen. un-capped brood.

[Dundrave]

Hey folks -

I am new to this adventure, and have a friend that started this year as well.

We can't seem to find her queen. Mine, seems so easy to find. Her queen should be an italian and we installed her package 2 weeks ago. About 5 frames are drawn + parts of 2 others. I can find, what I think are eggs, there doesn't seem to be any with 2 eggs in them, though they don't look particularly straight up and down. I also found a small circle of un-capped brood in the center.

If you have a drone layer, will there be un-capped brood in normal sized cells? I mean is the cell diameter the same? In my hive that I put in early April, the drone cells are very obvious after they are capped, but I am not sure I have seen any drone cells before they are capped.

What do you think? Do I have a problem? :eek:

Dundrave

[Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary]

I think everything is normal. You're probably looking a little too hard for her, try just looking for brood and most of the time your eye will pick up on the unique movements of the queen. From your description, though, I think your bees are doing well, they've started on their comb, and the queen was accepted and laying... Have fun!

Yes laying workers and drone layers will lay drones in worker cells, and remember that the capped worker cells are supposed to be slightly rounded at the top.

-Nathanael:cool:

[Dundrave]

Good I will relax until next week!

[Brent Bean]

If you are finding brood and eggs and the hive is growing in size. Things are good, I don’t spend much time trying to find the queen unless I absolutely need to for re-queen. I find it to disrupting for the most part. If you find brood and eggs things are good you can also determine if Mother is home by the demeanor of the bees. They will be calmer and the buzzing will seem even. When they are queenless they will roar when you open the hive and they will be more aggressive.
Laying workers is actually rare, and will normally happen if they become hopelessly queenless. But conditions need to be right for this to happen, no brood capable of becoming a queen. If you have eggs and brood in various stages of development they will produce another queen. And the colony will recover from the loss of the queen.
But what you are writing things sound very good. Relax and enjoy, you will soon learn what’s normal and when something is amiss .:)

[dcross]

I can find, what I think are eggs, there doesn't seem to be any with 2 eggs in them, though they don't look particularly straight up and down.

They tip over as they get close to hatching:)

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenspotting.htm

[tecumseh]

dundrave writes:
Her queen should be an italian and we installed her package 2 weeks ago.

tecumseh ask: did you look at the queen in the introduction cage before installing the package? italians can vary in color from very yellow to very dark. I have always found the darker variety much more difficult to locate... and most especially as the wax in the brood frames gets darker.

[Ross]

She'll be easier to spot as she fills out. She's probably still a bit skinny and doesn't stand out yet.