How long for Queen to find empty comb?

[MJuric]

If you drop a frame of empty comb into a hive is there any rule of thumb on how long it takes the queen to find it and lay eggs in it?

~Matt

[Riverratbees]

Well the bees have to clean it for her inspection before she will lay eggs.

[MJuric]

Here's the deal.

I'm trying to get some eggs to raise some queens. I went thru two of my other hives and they are packed full of brood but no real good patches of eggs. I have four frames of empty drawn comb. I tried putting them into hives and rather than the queen laying in them they filled them with honey :-)

I pulled them out and am know letting the bees rob them and clean them up again, but don't want to put them back in and just have them fill them up with honey again. I've read about capturing the queen and locking her onto the frame using wire but I'd rather not go thru that if I don't have to.

I could just wait until the brood hatches and she lays another full frame, but I'd rather drop these in and know exactly when they went in and where they are rather than rooting around in 2-3 hives looking for a decent frame of eggs.

~Matt

[psfred]

Try this:

Put the empty frame in the middle of the brood nest for two days, then check it. Remove one of the full brood frames to replace with the empty drawn one. Should have eggs by then, and you can swap the original frame back in (assuming you have a place to put it in the mean time -- another box, another hive, a nuc with bees, etc.).

Another thing to try is to cut a piece of foundation to leave points sticking down in a "W" shape in a frame. Put that frame in the brood nest of a hive which has a good queen -- again, in a couple days the bees should have drawn it enough to have the queen lay in it. They will convert the cells along the edge into queen cells when you put that frame into a queenless hive.

Peter

[MJuric]

I'll try replacing some of the brood frames as you suggest. I replaced one with a little brood last time and maybe that's why they just decided to fill it up with honey.

~Matt