[Steve in PA]

Today was the big day! I moved the capped queen cells from my grafts to 3 frame mini's when the calendar told me to do it. I have been using one of my dud hives for donor frames and young bees. Today I finished that hive off by breaking it down. I left a nuc and the remaining frames/bees in the spot where the hive was.

The problem that I had was that I was unable to find the queen while moving frames to the new boxes. I may, or may not, have left the queen in the original spot in essence making a flyback split. But, I may have also moved her to one of the mating nucs.

Not that I care a whole lot, but what would happen if the queen was in one of the mating nucs? Will she break down the cell or will the virgin kill her? I figure at worst my odds are 1 in 4 of having her in the wrong place.

 

[JWPalmer]

When are the cells due to emerge? You might be able to figure out where the queen is before that happens. Right now you have a lot less bees in each nuc, maybe go through them again? Ultimately one queen will prevail if the old queen got put in a nuc with a capped cell. My guess is that it will be the virgin queen. I am a pro at moving the queen inadvertantly into a nuc that is supposed to be a walk away split so I know where you are coming from.

 

[Steve in PA]

They are scheduled to hatch Thursday but I wouldn't be surprised if it is Friday. Tomorrow I coach a basketball game, Wed is supposed to be nice but I'd like to graft another batch now that my cell builder/finisher is vacant, and Thursday is basketball practice.

If she's in with a virgin, I'm rooting for the virgin. If she's in the original hive, I'm hoping they build out enough for me to steal more resources by June. After 2 years her hive didn't yield a drop of excess honey and is always the slowest to build up.

Grafting game is new to me, but fun.