Hi folks,
I've had numerous queen issues with this hive (see Cursed Hive thread). It came out of winter with laying workers, I gave them three weeks/three frames treatment, introduced a queen that got driven under the SBB which I put back in. Never saw new eggs during any of this. Gave them another frame of eggs on new wax last Saturday so I inspected the hive today...
No queen cells on the new frame, ugh.
So I decided to go through the hive looking for a queen and sure enough I found one. Actually she was pretty small but she was squealing a bit with a bee riding on her back.
I can't be sure if this is the queen I introduced but I assume so? It's been 2.5 weeks since I put her in there...and no eggs? I haven't seen a capped queen cell for 3 weeks (I found two about 4 days after I had introduced the queen and was on the third frame of eggs I had added) and I never saw evidence that they let it emerge.
So under what conditions would a queen not lay a single egg? Would an introduced queen not lay for that long? Is it possible a queen never lays an egg? I figured they would eventually just lay drones?
At this point do I just give her some more time, or pinch her and give them a frame of eggs the next day? She doesn't look like a very impressive queen. Maybe pinch her and combine with my other strong hive?
On a side note, I introduced a queen (same shipment) into a nuc at about the same time and she just started laying a few days ago as I saw the first new eggs in there today.
Thanks in advance
I've had numerous queen issues with this hive (see Cursed Hive thread). It came out of winter with laying workers, I gave them three weeks/three frames treatment, introduced a queen that got driven under the SBB which I put back in. Never saw new eggs during any of this. Gave them another frame of eggs on new wax last Saturday so I inspected the hive today...
No queen cells on the new frame, ugh.
So I decided to go through the hive looking for a queen and sure enough I found one. Actually she was pretty small but she was squealing a bit with a bee riding on her back.
I can't be sure if this is the queen I introduced but I assume so? It's been 2.5 weeks since I put her in there...and no eggs? I haven't seen a capped queen cell for 3 weeks (I found two about 4 days after I had introduced the queen and was on the third frame of eggs I had added) and I never saw evidence that they let it emerge.
So under what conditions would a queen not lay a single egg? Would an introduced queen not lay for that long? Is it possible a queen never lays an egg? I figured they would eventually just lay drones?
At this point do I just give her some more time, or pinch her and give them a frame of eggs the next day? She doesn't look like a very impressive queen. Maybe pinch her and combine with my other strong hive?
On a side note, I introduced a queen (same shipment) into a nuc at about the same time and she just started laying a few days ago as I saw the first new eggs in there today.
Thanks in advance