feeding question

Wow, 11 hours later, thanks for the replies. ..

I made up 16 nucs on 6/24/2014.
6/29/2014. I pulled the cages and looked for eggs briefly. All 16 queens are laying on both sides of a brood comb in a tight pattern.
But, I did not release them!
After 4 days your queen should have been released. How strong is that queen less hive?
I add capped and open brood to all hives that are minus a queen or have laying workers.
Does you hive have any emergency queen cells or laying workers?

If there is a dearth, then feeding may help get the queen laying. But some commercial queens take two weeks to start laying even in a flow...

Michael Bush said:

If there is a dearth, then feeding may help get the queen laying. But some commercial queens take two weeks to start laying even in a flow...

Click to expand...

That some is an exception to the rule.
In general, there is nothing wrong with commercial queens.

>That some is an exception to the rule.

Yes, it is the exception.

> In general, there is nothing wrong with commercial queens.

I can think of all kinds of things wrong with them...

If you are not in a nectar flow, slow feed a colony improves the chances of queen acceptance. The feeding should begin a day or two before the caged queen is placed in the colony. Use a feeding method that gives a thin syrup slowly to the colony.

You did not say if you have seen your new queen, do you know for sure that she was not killed? If she was not killed usually they start laying within a week. If you are in a dearth I would start feeding and check in four days for eggs/larvae. If you can't find the new queen look for queen cells or cells that have had a virgin emerge. If you have a virgin in the colony you are 1 to 2 weeks away from eggs.