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how soon after egg is laid do they cap the cell?

9K views 29 replies 13 participants last post by  RAFAEL/PR 
#1 ·
How soon after an egg is laid do they cap the cell? Reason I ask is ...I split a hive on March 16th and let them raise their own queen. ...I realize the queen should probably be on or done with her mating flights...and laying. I have a hard time seeing the eggs but was wondering when I should see capped brood.
Thanks!
Sally
 
#9 ·
In a month shear off all the drone caps. Every week shear off all the drone caps. In 60 days if you don't have any worker brood dump the hive and collect all the honey the foragers have been collecting.
 
#7 ·
Yep, you should see eggs after 33 days though.

*edit*

Now as an after thought do the math from the time you start a new queen cell to the time you have foraging workers out in the field bringing in nectar/pollen. After you do that math try to roughly guesstimate when your main flow (whether it's spring, summer, fall,) is. This is the type of thinking I've been trying to force myself into while looking at making increase; starting new nucleus's and raising new queens.
 
#12 ·
#13 ·
Moon, I think Acebird mentioned that since if you don't have workers and you have drones you have a queenless hive with a laying worker. I've heard that if you get a laying working you should put in a frame of eggs and swap the hive with the laying worker with a good hive. Supposedly the returning foragers will not accept the laying worker and will kill her, then they can make a new queen from eggs.
 
#18 ·
There has been no talk or mention of laying workers anywhere in this thread. The quote you copied from SallyD was:

>So theoretically it could take 43 days to see capped brood from a split hive?
>Queen to be laying 28 days +-5 = 33
>Worker capped 9 days +-1 = 10

That has NOTHING to do with a laying worker. That was a question about the theoretical amount of time from the day a split is made until you first see eggs from the new queen. Rather than recommending killing an entire colony why not recommend dropping a frame of brood in every 28 days and seeing if the bees try to raise a new queen or if they let the queen in the hive continue on as normal. If the queen turns out to be a drone layer you can pinch and keep adding brood until they raise another one, you get the bonus of not having to kill an entire colony for absolutely no reason.
 
#20 ·
That was a question about the theoretical amount of time from the day a split is made until you first see eggs from the new queen.
How do you know they are from a new queen? She can't see the eggs and they could be from the old queen. Maybe she can't find the queen. Pinch a drone layer? There could be hundreds of them. Why always assume the worst? And why waste brood on a laying worker hive when it is not guaranteed and you can't see what your looking at?

If this thread was just about answering the title question it could have ended on the third or forth post. And so it continues.
 
#23 ·
You're assuming the hive has a laying worker
Nope, I didn't assume that at all. I said to cull the drones and in 60 days you will have a good indication if you have a laying worker or not. It is great to say add brood but what if you don't have any or maybe you only have one other hive. Go right ahead and dig into that hive. Maybe you can screw that one up too.

If you think my advice is poor don't follow it. I am not looking for your blessing.
 
#25 ·
Nope, I didn't assume that at all. I said to cull the drones and in 60 days you will have a good indication if you have a laying worker or not.
Really? What you said was after 60 days of culling drone comb (apparently for no other reason then to keep mites down?) you will have a good indication if you have a laying worker or not? That's what you said ehh?

In a month shear off all the drone caps. Every week shear off all the drone caps. In 60 days if you don't have any worker brood dump the hive and collect all the honey the foragers have been collecting.

Do you even remember what you say in these threads? How can you not know what it is you're saying when there's a digital archive you can access instantaneously? Nope you didn't assume that at all? No, what you did was assure there would be a laying worker in 60 days then instruct the hive to be killed.

Go right ahead and dig into that hive. Maybe you can screw that one up too.
Just because you're not confident in your own ability to inspect a hive and make manipulations doesn't mean others aren't.

If you think my advice is poor don't follow it. I am not looking for your blessing.
I don't think poor adequately describes the word I would use for any of the advice I've seen you offer.
 
#27 ·
#28 ·
A reference from another thread on what can happen beating a dead horse.
This another demonstration of Ace failing to understand what he is reading, and then proceeding to offer poor advice. The comment Ace quote was in reference to the poster trying a "checkerboarding" technique, and not getting the results he desired. This has nothing to do with how long it takes to cap a cell after the egg is laid.

Here's the part Ace quoted, in context:
They moved again to the top of the upper deep again, staying on stores. There are not tons of bees but some have that lighter appearance making my think they are newer bees.

I guess I lost her sometime late winter. Oh well that would explain the behavior, with no brood to care for they are just "hanging out" in some clumps here and there with nothing to do, and move around and head upwards for more warmth on the cold nights I guess, or just for fun.

Well I don't think I'll re-queen. I had to move all my hives to a location a good bit away and that makes it difficult to care for them, hence my sloppy maintenance and such. I lost 2 over winter and 2 others when I tried to CB improperly, all swarmed and then for some reason all but one did not re-queen properly and went laying worker. What a mess. I weakened the other hives too much in my attempt to get the other hives new queens. I will not waste my time on that again. If they go laying worker, I'll buy new queens.


What happens when you beat a dead horse is you still have a dead horse, and a mess to clean up. A job for a "sanitation engineer"!

:ws:

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