[FC bee]

Hello all,
I'm quite desperate now... I've bought a nuc two weeks ago, transferred the frames to a hive, travelled with it in the back if my car and installed them at their location. A week ago, i just added a second brood box, but didn't inspect. Today I've inspected the hive and only found capped brood, and only on the frames that were in the nuc ( there were eggs when i've trsffered the frames). I was just thinking that i may have lost the queen during the transfer or travel when I spotted it! So, i have a queen... Do you think my queen has been "damaged" during the travel? I didn't spot any queen cell, but was more focused on finding eggs... What should i do? Wait and see or order a queen and destroy this one?
Any input will be very appreciated...

 

[RayMarler]

First of all... Relax! Beekeeping is supposed to be relaxing, not stressful.
OK, I'm guessing the frames you've added to fill in the brood box and the second brood box is all foundation frames or foundationless frames. If that's the case, keep in mind they need to draw comb in order to expand. In order to draw comb they need more bees than what is necessary to raise brood. You also have not said if you are feeding anything. Feeding sugar syrup can speed up the comb drawing.

It takes a lot of bees to do work in the hive, such as drawing comb and expanding brood area. Especially if you are not feeding, they maybe turning all foraging stores into brood, and with a lack of drawn comb, the queen fills all the available space for brood and then has to wait for it to emerge before she gets more space to lay more eggs. As the brood emerges, this gives her more bees to care for more brood, and more bees as they get a little older to draw comb to expand the brood nest. Be patient and keep a watch on them. As the current brood emerges, the queen will start laying again and they'll have more bees to work on drawing comb and expanding the brood nest. Keep in mind, that over a normal 3 week brood cycle, the queen can lay from 8 to 10 to sometimes 12 frames of brood before the first laid starts emerging. Once they get a round of brood emerging, they'll start growing faster. It takes bees to make bees. Enjoy your newfound obsession!

 

[FC bee]

Thanks a lot for your reply!
In fact, this is my second year of beekeeping. I've lost my bees during this particularly harsh winter. They had 2 brood box full of honey and pollen, but they starved. It was so cold (-20 Celsius during the day until almost end of March) that I didn't have any chance to feed them.
So my new bees have been gifted clean drawn comb. I'm still worried... Is it possible that she just took a laying break??? Stress from transport???

 

[jsorber]

I'm a newbee, but is it possible that she was a virgin when you received her? Sometimes Nucs come with virgin queens that then have to go get mated locally. If that's the case, then two weeks is an ok time to not have eggs.

 

[RayMarler]

Yes, it could be you were given a virgin in the nuc, that's not standard practice but it does happen sometimes. It could also be there's not enough bees in there to take care of more brood than what is in there, and she's waiting for more nurse bees to emerge. Since you did see her in there, I would not be stressing over it, give it a week or 2, to see what it looks like once you have that current round of brood emerged. I'm betting you'll see eggs and younger larva then.

 

[FC bee]

Thanks again for replying.
I know she was not a virgin, she was laying in the nuc. Ok, maybe as you say there are not enough nurse bees. I'll try to relax and see what happens...
Bees are bringing in lots of pollen, i guess they know what they're doing...

 

[FC bee]

I just inspected the hive and there they were... Young larva and eggs. Thank you for your help!

 

[BMAC]

Well FC what have you learned from this adventure so far?

 

[FC bee]

Well FC what have you learned from this adventure so far?

I guess I have to learn patience...
Being a gardener too, I thought I already had this one though