[checotah]

I released the queen a week ago past Saturday. Today is the first day I have went to the hive and looked things over in detail. I found 7 out of the 10 frames are drawn out except the bottom couple of inches. 5 of the frames have capped honey cells on the top going down about 1 to 2 inches. Honey in other cells. I did not find any brood at all or the queen. The bees were mellow and did not seem to mind me following around. Should I be concerned that I did not find brood or her?

 

[sylus p]

I would be.

 

[Brent Bean]

Normally the queen will start laying a few hours after release, but not always if the hive was truly queenless and in this situation they would be hopelessly queenless their disposition would be loud and they would be flying into your veil acting very anxious . since they are mellow this indication would give me hope that for some reason she just is a slow starter. This sometimes happens because of dehydration during the shipping transit, and it takes a more time to build her back up. I have found a high percentage of package queens are superseded in the first month.
My suggestion would be 1) leave them alone for two more days then check for eggs again. If none found, look diligently for the queen if you can’t find her consider the hive queenless 2) If you have a second hive take a frame of open brood, and install it in the queenless hive. Make sure some of the brood is between one and three days old. They will be able to raise another queen.

If you don’t have a second hive, find a supplier and quickly order a replacement queen and re-introduce her, if they go queenless long enough workers will start to lay eggs which will be all drones then you have a whole new problem to deal with. This is why I always recommend someone that is starting into beekeeping to always start with two hives.

 

[throrope]

One day old eggs look like small thin grains of rice on end at the bottom of the cells. At three days they lay across the bottom. A bright sunny day or flashlight will help. I've also seen pics of old time grafters using watchmaker's lighted magnifying glasses. You may may want to use a toothpick and try to pull a few eggs out. I never saw eggs until an inspector near shoved my nose into them. Once seen, easier to find.

New queens are often difficult to find since they are often a bit on the small side and can easily scramble away.

My first package five odd years ago never made brood after about a month. Rossman's suspected a non laying queen and promptly replaced her next day. That queen became the foundation for eight hives via swarms and splits.

I'd give it another week and if no change, seek guidance from your package provider.

Good luck

 

[dickm]

If she were released too soon, the bees could have killed her. You should at least see a few eggs. Can you get someone with experience to look with you?

dickm

 

[checotah]

Thanks for the advice guys I am going back in again today to make sure I did not over look anything and will let you know thanks again

 

[bigbore]

eggs on new comb are very hard to see if you have never seen them before. hopefully you were able to get back into them and get the sun over your shoulder and shining into the cells, that helps a lot.

 

[checotah]

You are right the sunshine made a huge difference. I found to batches of brood in the middle two frames. I also could see small larva the looked like grains of rice. In the lower section of the grouping I found what appeared to bee fresh caps on some brood cells. So it looks to be going as planned.

Thanks to all for the help and support.

 

[stormbringer]

Any chance you can post pictures for the rest of us?

 

[checotah]

Any chance you can post pictures for the rest of us?

Not a great picture, but I think it works.

Admins advised that this image was too big. Any smaller and I think you would not be able to make out whats going on. I will take another picture next time I have the hive open. Sorry admins

You can see it here the photo here