Hey quick question... How long after I've seen capped queen cells should I go in to see if she is laying/alive? I want to make sure I see a good active queen before the population drops too far but I don't want to bust in there too fast and make them pissed at her
She emerges 8 days after the cell is capped.
She should be laying 2 weeks after that.
So give it three weeks to see eggs, or a mated queen.
Sometimes it takes an extra week for her to mate and lay.
Best of luck.
Just for grins, I'm going to throw a wrench in things. Feel free to disregard my comment, but it's food for thought. I just had a few queen hatch out about a week and half ago 6/22/12. According to the calendar, my mating flights should have been 6/27 and 6/28. I checked the hives on the 28th and found one queen had already been laying. Obviously this is not the average condition, but it's just something to think about. From a hobbyist standpoint I could afford to check the hive that soon. But on a large scale, it would be inefficient for a beek to check in that often. So the calendar allows for less intervention, and less time spent. Odds are better of finding eggs after a few weeks. I guess I just got lucky having such a proactive queen. Then again there is that chance that I am unlucky and she hurried her mating flights. I guess we'll just have to see what happens to see if she puts out a good laying rate. Good luck with your queens!
It's a pretty big window. She could be laying as soon as 4 days after she emerges or three weeks after she emerges. But two weeks is the most common and reasonable expectation.
I'm thinking so far I've been way too lucky with my bees. I've had only great results so far, including my seemingly ambitious new queens. I don't want to jinx it, but I'm afraid something bad is looming. After all the horror stories you hear about, it just seems I'm due...
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