eggs or larvae to raise new queen?

[justin]

the hive that swarmed a month ago has hatched queen cells but no larva or brood. they have backfilled with lots of honey. today i added frames from another hive and the frames had lots of small larvae but if there were any eggs i couldn't see them. can they raise a queen from a young larvae or does it have to be an egg? and if the frames had lots of larvae is it pretty likely that there were eggs and that i dont know how to look for them? thanks justin

[Axtmann]

Bees can raise a queen from eggs and young, up to 3 days old larva.

[brooksbeefarm]

If you have open queen cells you probably have a new queen that hasn't started laying yet.If you put a frame with eggs and young larva in and they just cap it over and don't start queen cells then you probably have a queen. Jack

[justin]

thanks for the replies, if i had kept a more exact timeline of when the cells hatched, and could find the info on the egg to queen timeline i might not be so worried, but we have had sudden rain squalls everyday for a month and i have heard those are hard on mating flights. looks like the rain may finally be over. justin

[tecumseh]

justin writes:
if i had kept a more exact timeline

tecumseh:
some times this happens, but most times it does not.

another clue.... if you look at the central area of the hive/brood nest just prior to a new queen laying the bees will begin polishing the comb in preperation for the queen to lay. this area has two distinct qualities... 1) the workers polish this area to a low sheen and 2) they appear to not want to walk across these newly polished areas <the sheer lack of bees on the face of these frames make them notable.

quite typically at this point the queen is mated and a day or two away from beginning to lay.

[brooksbeefarm]

thanks for the replies, if i had kept a more exact timeline of when the cells hatched, and could find the info on the egg to queen timeline i might not be so worried, but we have had sudden rain squalls everyday for a month and i have heard those are hard on mating flights. looks like the rain may finally be over. justin

When you find if you have a queen or not? i would keep an eye on her.Having rain every day for a month or even every other day the queen may not of got bred properly and will run out (of sperm) or become a drone layer. In that case i would order a new queen. Time will tell and it's hard to be patient. Jack