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What went wrong?

4K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  Ben Franklin 
#1 ·
A little over two weeks ago, I made a 5 frame queenless nuc. I replaced the middle frame with a frame of eggs (eggs so young they were standing on end) from a hive whose genetics I liked. I let them draw out queen cells. They drew over 20.

I marked my dates on the calendar. When the queen cells were ripe (only hours to a day until hatching) I made splits. I made 4 two frame splits with stores and brood and plenty of bees. Then, I put two queen cells apiece into the nucs.

I struggled to get enough bees in one of the nucs. Eventually, I had to break it down. That left three. Today (over two weeks later) I went into the remaining three. No eggs. No larva. No queens.

These three nucs have failed while the original queenless hive from which the cells were harvested had eggs as early as last week.

What went wrong?
 
#14 ·
Edit. What did the cells they hatched from look like? A hole at the bottom of the cell or chewed down?
I would want to know this also. It tells you whether the problem was with the cells or mating. Sometimes they will chew down cells that don't hatch but most of the time they just leave them in place. But in neither case is there a hole in the tip of the cell.
 
#6 ·
JStinson says....
A little over two weeks ago, I made a 5 frame queenless nuc. I replaced the middle frame with a frame of eggs (eggs so young they were standing on end) from a hive whose genetics I liked. I let them draw out queen cells. They drew over 20.

A little over two weeks ago means your virgins are not a week old yet. Give them at least another week before you panic.
 
#8 ·
A little over two weeks ago, I made a 5 frame queenless nuc. I replaced the middle frame with a frame of eggs (eggs so young they were standing on end) from a hive whose genetics I liked. I let them draw out queen cells. They drew over 20.
Ok, I've made a huge mistake in explaining this. I'm looking at the calendar now.

What I should have said is that 2.5 weeks ago, I made splits and put queen cells in them. The hive from which the queen cells came had been there for ~12 days before that.

So, the queen cells were 12 days old when they were transplanted into the nucs. The queens were scheduled to hatch on June 9. Last week, the queenless nuc that made the queen cells had a laying queen. That tells me that the others should have been mated and laying too.

I can understand one of them failing. But all three?
 
#12 ·
Finally got into these nucs today. One out of three was a success. She's mated and laying.

I took the other two and put them both in a five frame nuc. They're currently eating through newspaper to combine with the successful colony (which is also now in a 5 framer).

33% success rate is pretty rough.
 
#15 ·
How long had the bees been q-less before you added those cells
They were queenless for maybe an hour. Does the 24 hour rule apply here?


I would want to know this also. It tells you whether the problem was with the cells or mating. Sometimes they will chew down cells that don't hatch but most of the time they just leave them in place. But in neither case is there a hole in the tip of the cell.
I was not able to tell where the hole was because they tore the entire thing down. I placed the cells between the top bars. The bees tore the entire cells down. I do not know if they did it immediately or if they hatched first. The cells were kinda puny. That might be my other problem.
 
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