No queen, what next....

[MSbeekeeper]

I installed 2 packages on May8 and 3 day later both queens were released by the bees. a week after that happened I went in and saw the queen in one hive but could not in the other. So today I went out and in one hive saw larva but no queen. And in the other one I saw no larva, no queen, and what looked like 2 queen cells. So do I let them raise a new one and hope it happens before the colony dies out or do I need to order a new queen ASAP?

Thanks

[Ravenseye]

Are you sure they're queen cells? If there hasn't been a laying queen, your queenless hive has no eggs to raise a queen with. The bees might be building queen cups "just in case" but with no eggs, they'll never be queenright.

If you're sure there's no queen, you can order a store bought one and install her. You could also grab a frame of eggs and brood from your good hive and drop it into your queenless colony. The bees should take it from there.

[MSbeekeeper]

So instead of buying a queen I can take a frame from the one hive and put it in the queenless hive and they should make a queen or is the frame just to sustain numbers?

As far as being queenless I am pretty sure. I have yet to find her since she was released a few weeks ago. Actually the cells look like a swarm cell from pictures ive seen. Thy are at the middle of one frame and the center top on the other frame. They are bubbled out with a whole in the bottom of it facing down.

[Eyeshooter]

As ravenseye said, the frame you put in the queenless hive has to have eggs on it, not just capped brood. If the hive is queenless, the bees will start feeding several of them royal jelly and raise their own. The problem is this is going to take about 30 days before you have a mated queen back in the hive. If you are the only beek around, she may not be well inseminated. Since you are just starting out with the 2 packages, it may be better to buy a new queen and get the package going.

John

[MSbeekeeper]

I have decided tomorrow I will do one good last check and search for eggs and larva. If nothing is found I will order a new queen friday afteroon and hopefully get it by wednesday. Well it is unfortunate but at least I am getting experience in how to handle this now. On top of this I get to learn how to requeen a hive. Live and learn, thanks for the help.

[franktrujillo]

The cell is a supersedure cell . I wouldn't disturb them...but thats me packages usually get superseded because of long trip haven't been laying eggs..she started slow so bees will make new queen..she may still be in there.This is my second year and i have seen the queen twice once when she Arrived the second time is when i was checking hive being curious there she was in new comb laying eggs.As soon as she was done she ran for cover never seen her again..:popcorn: the average forager lives up to 44 days. I think they will be fine.my package did the same thing.after 8 days the cell should be capped she will hatch at day 16 you will start seeing lots of drones around hive after she hatches it takes 45 days too see new foragers i didn't even feed and they were ok.I was stressed though one and only 1 hive no mentor beekeeper to help tought i wasted my money..check my profile there is a hole my bees made..