Generally, when queen cells quickly disappear, as you describe, there is usually a virgin present, or a recently mated queen, who should soon begin laying.

Another possibility is that you transferred a queen on one of the brood frames. How sure are you that you did not transfer a queen from a brood frame donor hive?

 

thanks Joseph, yes I am sure about not transfering queen I brushed all bees off of frame before moving them both times and later saw the queen in donor box. I just did not expect the q cells to be removed and It is possible there was another qcell that I had missed seeing before.
thanks again
Larry

 

It is important to remember that virgin queens are extremely different that mated/laying queens. They look different, and behave very much differently. Virgin queens also frequently leave their hive, even before mating flights, to orient and practice flying.

Most mated/laying queens have obviously swollen abdomens, they often move quite slowly too, and only rarely leave the comb to hide on a hive's sidewall of down in a corner or in a bottom hive seam.

On the other hand virgins are usually much smaller, sometimes not much larger than workers with a full honey sack. They usually move very quickly over the comb, often on top of the workers there, but sometimes will quickly stop and hide beneath groups of workers. And they will, sometimes fly off when overly disturbed - much more readily and successfully than mated/laying queens.

 

Joseph,
based on your answer I suppose the best thing to do is wait 10-15 days and see if any new eggs/ larvae are in hive?

 

That's what I would do.

Another thing I've done, when I have ripe queen cells that are being discarded due to Q.A. Is to place one in there, and check it the next morning. If it was also destroyed, then there is a very strong chance that a virgin is present. Virgins are like queen killing machines, they are relentless and will destroy anything that could potentially threaten their supremacy.

 

hi Honeyman.
i looked at the pictures u have up on the other post and i didnt see any queen cells or cups. make sure when you get a brood frame that it is brood of ALLL stages. eggs,larvae large larvae and capped. that way when the larvae is the correct age they make a queen from it. personally,if you dont see a queen cell forming soon you may want to add another brood frame with all stages of brood. personally ive never had a problem with the girls making queens before. just make sure you have all stages of brood. gives the failing hive some nurse bees when they hatch and correct age for queen making.

if you lived close enough id hook u up with a couple queen cells to pop in that hive.
i had a colony go queenless and i cut out a fram from a top bar hive of some awesome feral bees (nice and hard working tiny bees) and banded it into a frame. dropped it into the hive body and one frame has 10 qc's on it.

Just keep trying as long as there are plenty of bees and its this early in the summer for them to pick up for wintering.

remember as well that when you get some qc's being made youll probably have alot of them and then you have to make the decision to start some nucs or not hahaha. when i saw 10 i had to check all my hives to make sure i had enough resources to pull frames. id hate to see a great queen go to waste. especially from this feral colony. probably gonna be the genetics i run with in the apiary while im expanding .

dont fret buddy .... remember its all a learning experience and something not working is NOT fsilure. its an experiment and a lesson.

have fun with ur bees ... ull learn alot.

 

tommy thanks for the info and encourgement, I want to have several qc and expand this summer if possible,
I have learned so much and find now that I know less than i did LOL
it is facinating and fun to observe bees and how they behave. ( so much gentler than most folks think)
I did not understand why the qc with a visible larvae in it 2 days ago just dissapeared.
I know I have a long way to go but I am enjoying the ride .

larry