Live in northern utah. Inspected a hive about a month ago and found no capped brood and several empty emergency cells. I bought a queen that is marked. Put her in and released her 3 days later. Three weeks from being released (today) I checked for capped brood and found non. I saw her walking around looking fat and healthy. Why isn't she laying? There is plenty of comb with no honey in it she can lay in. Maybe I was sold a queen that wasn't mated? She looks big and fat though and I think she looks mated. I plan on just letting it go and see what happens. I expect the hive to get robbed out in a few weeks when their numbers get small. The population is down a lot from last time I checked 3 weeks ago and the old bees are dying off it appears.
Hard to get them to lay without enough nurse bees, pollen, stored honey. Shake some nurse bees in with them, frame of brood from another hive.
That's what I would do anyway, 1st year bkeep
I had one yesterday that was not laying. She was in a hive that had been booming rescently and was full of honey. But not one egg or any brood. She was marked so it was the same queen who had gotten them to that point. I caught the queen and replaced her with a laying queen. After examining her I found her abdomen was dented near the end. Looks like she got injured. It seems ulikely that bees could have caused the dent, so probably it was me pushing two bars together or some other manipulation that damaged her. You might check your queen for damage...
Thanks for the reply! Sounds like a good idea. Will give her a close look. Could it also possibly be that the workers are too old and don't know how to clean out a cell for her to lay in? Maybe it would help to install a frame of capped brood (without the nurse bees) and see if that could get her kick started (assuming she isn't damaged in some way)?
I bought this queen for $40 and I may call them up and see if they have any more and if they might replace her (if they have any). I only have 4 hives including this one and I'm hesitant to break into one of the other hives to get some brood since I just started a formic pro treatment this last Saturday and it is getting real late in the season.
Any bee can do any job. Young workers are more effecient at jobs that younger workers usually do, but any bee can do any job. Field bees can make wax but not very efficiently and they can make royal jelly to feed the young, but again, not very effeciently. It would be more a matter of whether there are ENOUGH bees to do the job.
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