[rhaldridge]

I have a small split I made a month and a half ago. Other splits I've made have brooded up a lot quicker than this one. I've found a few small patches of open and capped worker brood, so I know the queen is fertile, but she isn't laying much. I've seen her, and she's a big fat brown girl-- daughter of a Beeweaver queen. I have more queens coming next week. If you were me, would you kill this one and give them a new queen, or give her more time to start laying well?

 

[squarepeg]

is she an emergency queen that your small split made or the one from the parent colony? i have stopped letting small splits make queens because they tended to not perform well. either way, if she doesn't pick up the pace probably best to retire her.

 

[Joseph Clemens]

Once I had replacements available, I'd move her into a nuc of her own and keep an eye on her. Then, if she doesn't improve her performance, she can be eliminated - a way to give her a little more of a chance (perhaps she will warm into her role, or maybe not).

 

[rhaldridge]

is she an emergency queen that your small split made or the one from the parent colony? i have stopped letting small splits make queens because they tended to not perform well. either way, if she doesn't pick up the pace probably best to retire her.

No, she was the result of an experiment that resulted in a bunch of really big pretty cells. I had a colony in a stack of 3 five frame boxes, very populous. I made a split by taking two of the boxes away with the queen, and leaving one on the old place. The box was really stuffed with bees, and they made great cells. But there was some bad weather, a cold norther, back at the end of March when they would have been emerging and mating.

Joseph, I like the idea of giving her a chance. It would be hard for me to kill a queen.