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I got a new nuc installed 12 days ago in a 10 frame deep hive and all seemed well, I did not see the queen (didn't look for her in all the chaos) but noticed a capped queen cell on the bottom of one of the frames (of course I squished it figuring it was a swarm cell :s).
9 days later I did an inspection and there were no eggs, no larvae, nothing in the centers of the original frames. I looked over the all 10 frames and NO QUEEN. I also have a carniolan hive, so I took a fresh frame of eggs (the queen was on it so I knocked her gently off back into her hive) and placed the frame in the nuc hoping they would raise a new queen.
Here I am three days later and after another inspection they haven't touched the eggs! Some are neatly developing into larvae but no queen cells or cups are present?! Now what?!? Did I not wait long enough? Do the bees wait until the eggs hatch and THEN build queen cells? Is it because of the nectar flow? Are the bees just stupid or am I being stupid?
-bk79
9 days later I did an inspection and there were no eggs, no larvae, nothing in the centers of the original frames. I looked over the all 10 frames and NO QUEEN. I also have a carniolan hive, so I took a fresh frame of eggs (the queen was on it so I knocked her gently off back into her hive) and placed the frame in the nuc hoping they would raise a new queen.
Here I am three days later and after another inspection they haven't touched the eggs! Some are neatly developing into larvae but no queen cells or cups are present?! Now what?!? Did I not wait long enough? Do the bees wait until the eggs hatch and THEN build queen cells? Is it because of the nectar flow? Are the bees just stupid or am I being stupid?
-bk79