[ruthiesbees]

One of my hives is queenless, but raising a new queen. Can I get them to raise more queen cells if I add a frame of new eggs; or once they have a couple of queen cells going, will they not feel the urge to make any more? The hive only has capped brood remaining, so they have been queenless for about 8-10 days. One queen cell is capped and the 4 others will be capped soon as well. I moved all but one queen cell over to a nuc so I can increase my chances of getting a mated queen back in the hive. I was just wondering if I could get more queen cells going, that were 8-10 days later than the oldest one, so they wouldn't be pipping when the 1st queen hatched out and goes looking for her sisters to kill.

 

[Joseph Clemens]

If they do raise more queen cells from the added brood, the virgin will destroy them anyway - she doesn't limit herself to just those queen cells that are nearing emergence, she just does those, first. She will even pull the larva out of uncapped queen cells, I know, I've watched them do it.

 

[burns375]

Yes, just make sure you know there are no cells, so a virgin doesn't destroy your new cells when she hatches. I would try to graft them if you have cups, then you can much easily access and move the cells. An easy way to make cups without ordering something like jzbz cups; is with a damp rounded dowl rod dipped in wax, make the cup thin. You don't have anything to loose, its fun. You can use a tooth pick or a paperclip with the end flattened and shaped in a scoop.