I made a 5 frame Nuc a month ago with a new marked queen I purchased. After 3 days they still didn't eat through the candy so I removed the cork to release her. A week later I tried to find her but could not. So I waited a few more day and still no signs of a queen. No eggs no larva. I never lost a queen this way so I introduced a frame with some fresh eggs to see if they would start queen cells which would tell me that they were queen-less. The eggs turned into larva and no queen cells, which tells me they have a queen? There are no eggs or larva on the frames when I first made the Nuc. So is there a queen or not? I should have been able to find her. She is marked and its Nuc. only 5 frames. Do I try to introduce another queen?
Invisible queen?
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They may have killed your bought queen and raised one of there own
if that is the case she should be laying any day if she made it back from her mating flight.
Give a few more days and check for new eggs.
Then if you cant find any good new eggs look through hive, your mind set on a queen not looking for a marked one.
ta tail signs of no queen are
they will construct more cell cups here and there on face of comb most will be empty or all, This late in the stage the workers could start laying a few eggs so if you see a queen cell with larva more than likely it is a laying worker doing her laying also the combs will bee cluttered up with pollen and nectar
Also in the area where brood once was they will add old wax to the opening of the worker cells it will look fatter than normal
the bees will run about heltersculter with a buzz
if that is the case she should be laying any day if she made it back from her mating flight.
Give a few more days and check for new eggs.
Then if you cant find any good new eggs look through hive, your mind set on a queen not looking for a marked one.
ta tail signs of no queen are
they will construct more cell cups here and there on face of comb most will be empty or all, This late in the stage the workers could start laying a few eggs so if you see a queen cell with larva more than likely it is a laying worker doing her laying also the combs will bee cluttered up with pollen and nectar
Also in the area where brood once was they will add old wax to the opening of the worker cells it will look fatter than normal
the bees will run about heltersculter with a buzz
How many times have you checked the nuc? She could have been out mating if you only looked once. But if you've looked a few times and nothing then I would have to say that adding fresh eggs would have: a) made it tougher to assess if she's in there laying b) not allow you to see queen cells being made that way. If they really are queenless they'll make a queen cell or many then wait for it to be filled, which won't happen because there's no queen to lay in it. My hunch is that you need to re-queen if you don't have fresh eggs.
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Somtimes queens will run and hide, but you said you have a marked queen, so she 'should' be easy to spot.
Giving a frame of eggs does not guarantee they will make a queen cell. Perhaps there was no eggs less than 3 days old on the frame. Eggs need to be less than 3 days old to be turned into queen cell.
I would do a very detailed search. Frame by frame - almost bee by bee - even use a seperate box to hold the frames while you are doing the search. Then search the nuc box itself as perhaps she runs down into the lower corners off the frame. I have a few queens that do that. If you done a hard search, then you know your marked queen absconded.
Giving a frame of eggs does not guarantee they will make a queen cell. Perhaps there was no eggs less than 3 days old on the frame. Eggs need to be less than 3 days old to be turned into queen cell.
I would do a very detailed search. Frame by frame - almost bee by bee - even use a seperate box to hold the frames while you are doing the search. Then search the nuc box itself as perhaps she runs down into the lower corners off the frame. I have a few queens that do that. If you done a hard search, then you know your marked queen absconded.
Are the bees testy if they're queenless? Mine are so calm it's almost spooky. I haven't spotted her but the one time, and that was before the split. There are eggs, so I think they're queen-right, but I'm not sure. The eggs are smack dab in the bottom of the cells, though, which makes me think queen, not worker. They'd be irate without her, though, right?
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I find that bees are testy when they are 'broodless' not queenless, but it's not a science and every hive can be different. A hive without a queen but with some brood to me is generaly calm.
Laying worker happens when they are queenless AND broodless for a while. Laying worker is easy to spot - look at the eggs if there are mutiple in a cell (use reading glasses) you got laying worker. Or once they cap the cells it's easy to tell drone vs worker caps. The drone caps stick out. Laying workers only produce drones.
Laying worker happens when they are queenless AND broodless for a while. Laying worker is easy to spot - look at the eggs if there are mutiple in a cell (use reading glasses) you got laying worker. Or once they cap the cells it's easy to tell drone vs worker caps. The drone caps stick out. Laying workers only produce drones.
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You would think that the Marked Queen should be easy to find. But if she got replaced or there was already an active small queen in there, she might have been dethroned and removed from the hive.
Normally, I can find my queens, but there are times that I can go thru the same box multiple times on different days and still not find her -- Yet, I know she is there due to the capped brood and larvae.
I find my hives to get very testy if they are queenless. This past Sunday, I was looking in one of my hives and the girls were pretty cross with me. I came across brood and supercedure cells, yet no queen.
Normally, I can find my queens, but there are times that I can go thru the same box multiple times on different days and still not find her -- Yet, I know she is there due to the capped brood and larvae.
I find my hives to get very testy if they are queenless. This past Sunday, I was looking in one of my hives and the girls were pretty cross with me. I came across brood and supercedure cells, yet no queen.
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do you have more drone brood? then regular brood? and do you have any eggs in any frames? I had a ninja Queen it took me a few weeks to find but she is there. if you have spotty drone brood you migh have laying workers and thats bad. if you have eggs and they are one to a cell in the middle your fine if its two to a cel or on the cel walls bad sign. but to know if your queen right is eggs larva brood in that order.
I have a russian queen that we tore apart a 5 frame Nuc 9 times looking for an never could find her, so i intorduced another russian to the Nuc thinking they were queenless. Needless to say they killed her through the queen cage. The other queen was supposed ot be marked and when i DID find her, she had just a tiny speck of blue paint on her. They had cleaned it off of her and the Nuc seller never could find her and me and another beek couldn't either. She was there. One of the best ways I have ever decided that a hive was queenright is chaining. Are they making wax? That generally tells me that they a.) have the ability to make a queen b.) are queenright c.) or thinkthey have all the above. Interestingly enough, every hive for me that has been chaining has a queen. I recently had a split where i could NOT find her in the hive in a single medium. I grabbed another hive and went up there and started pulling the frames apart 1 by 1 and noticed a bunch of bees UNDER the Screen Bottom board. I took the entire hive off its SBB and put it on a Solid BB and turned the other bottom board over and there she was....below the sbb...UNDER THE HIVE hanging on to the screen. I let her crawl onto my hive tool as she looked like a virgin and set her on the frames in the hive. She flew away on me never to be seen again...or so I thought. About 5 days later i checked the hive beside that one and they already had 2 laying queens and then, magically, they had another. She looked oddly familiar. I grabbed her up after being stung by her and put her in a cage and put her back into the origional hive i thought she came from. They were excited, in a good way so I just released her. She went right in, they accepted her and all is well here about 6 days later. Checked on them yesterday and she is good.
You said above you saw eggs. You just have a runny queen i bet.......look for the eggs. I am like you, it took me a LONG time to accept eggs as a queenright hive, but i had to learn instead of tearing it apart to find a queen. She is there i bet!
Dev
You said above you saw eggs. You just have a runny queen i bet.......look for the eggs. I am like you, it took me a LONG time to accept eggs as a queenright hive, but i had to learn instead of tearing it apart to find a queen. She is there i bet!
Dev
What makes brood "spotty"? Is that just single ones scattered, groups of cells scattered around?
well, another one of theose ask a beek questions. Some say its just random cells that have been layed in with no pattern. Some say she can't miss a cell in a bunch......i personally look for a pattern where every cell has been layed in in a tight grouping. If you see cells randomly laid in, you may have an issue, and or a new queen. I have seen queens lay double eggs as they were brand new and I have seen new queens lay ENTIRE frames front and back not laying in only the very top and or bottom row. So it depends...hows that for an answer?
No he brought in a frame of fresh eggs to see if they'd make a queen cell. In my experience I've never seen a cell with an egg get turned into a queen cell and re: a post above, we've seen young queens lay multiple eggs and scatter them in an untidy fashion.
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If you havent just take the queen away from a strong hive and go back in 4 or 5 days and see how many cells there are.
I have one who lays all over the frame. I thought that was normal! She's filling it as fast as they can draw comb. Huh. Okay, then.
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