D
dcromwel
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Inspected exploding hive 2 wks ago. Lots of eggs. Queen seen. One week ago, she was gone. Hive still loaded with bees. Handful of supercedure cells seen. Perhaps I killed her during prior inspection. End of rookie year coming up.
Purchased a new queen from regional dealer day after finding prior queen gone. Followed his advice for introducing her by placing queen cage in between frames for 2 days and then, if no aggressive balling around queen cage, releasing her. Did so. Just reinspected 5 days later. No queen, no eggs, no larvae. 10-12 supercedure cells and 1 swarm cell. Did I goof on the intro technique? Does it make a difference if the queen cage is placed at the top of the food chamber rather than at the top of the brood chamber below?
Should I requeen again now?
Also noted 12-15 capped drone cells at the bottom of the lowest of 2 honey supers despite queen excluder between food chamber and supers. Do the workers ever move eggs? Or had they likely been laid prior to all these shananigans?
What a learning curve.
Purchased a new queen from regional dealer day after finding prior queen gone. Followed his advice for introducing her by placing queen cage in between frames for 2 days and then, if no aggressive balling around queen cage, releasing her. Did so. Just reinspected 5 days later. No queen, no eggs, no larvae. 10-12 supercedure cells and 1 swarm cell. Did I goof on the intro technique? Does it make a difference if the queen cage is placed at the top of the food chamber rather than at the top of the brood chamber below?
Should I requeen again now?
Also noted 12-15 capped drone cells at the bottom of the lowest of 2 honey supers despite queen excluder between food chamber and supers. Do the workers ever move eggs? Or had they likely been laid prior to all these shananigans?
What a learning curve.