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I had a queen less hive(cu tdown split), I gave it a cell, the cell hatched but when I checked for eggs when the time came there were none. Then I gave it a frame of open brood and they started queen cells on it.
My conclusion was that they had no queen so I should give them a mated queen from one of my mating nucs. I put her in a cage and released her after 24 hours. The bees were very enthusiastic when I put the cage in.
Today I checked the hive and first thing I see is a virgin. ****. My good queen is dead... and she was probably my biggest queen.
OK
For now I divided the hive in two as they are aggressive and want to get rid of this feature. The hive without a queen received a cell. The other has the virgin I found. I also marked her.
Is it possible that a hive containing a virgin queen to start queen cells knowing they have one? This is weird to me.
At the same time I had another hive in the exact same situation and they received the mated queen - she already started to lay in her new home.
My conclusion was that they had no queen so I should give them a mated queen from one of my mating nucs. I put her in a cage and released her after 24 hours. The bees were very enthusiastic when I put the cage in.
Today I checked the hive and first thing I see is a virgin. ****. My good queen is dead... and she was probably my biggest queen.
OK
For now I divided the hive in two as they are aggressive and want to get rid of this feature. The hive without a queen received a cell. The other has the virgin I found. I also marked her.
Is it possible that a hive containing a virgin queen to start queen cells knowing they have one? This is weird to me.
At the same time I had another hive in the exact same situation and they received the mated queen - she already started to lay in her new home.