[Nelsonhoneyfarms]

I’ve got a small four frame nuc that I introduced a QC to in early to mid April. All went well and she has been laying for about 3 or 4 weeks. As you can see from the pic, a section of that frame has multiple eggs in each cell today. She has capped brood on the same frame that she herself originally laid.

Have y’all ever seen a new queen do this? Could it be low pheromone levels? I’ve had a laying worker, but never one with a queenright nuc.

In one pic I’m pointing at the queen. She is on the same frame as the multi egg cells.

 

[AR Beekeeper]

It is possible the eggs are being laid by the queen. If she needs more cells than the nuc provides, she just lays several eggs in the cells available. This is not unusual with young queens. Give the nuc a second box with empty cells for her to lay in and see if the multiple eggs in the cells stops.

 

[Nelsonhoneyfarms]

It is possible the eggs are being laid by the queen. If she needs more cells than the nuc provides, she just lays several eggs in the cells available. This is not unusual with young queens. Give the nuc a second box with empty cells for her to lay in and see if the multiple eggs in the cells stops.

Thanks. I was hoping to hear something like this. That make sense. There’s a gentleman that came several weeks ago and handpicked the nuc and paid for it. He left it here so he would be able to build his boxes and he hasn’t come back yet to pick them up. I’ll trade out a frame and see.

 

[billdean]

If it is laying workers they may very well end up killing that queen. I would cage her then figure out what you have. It may take a newly mated queen a few days to figure out her equipment but you say she has been laying for 3 or 4 weeks.

 

[Nelsonhoneyfarms]

Thanks. Another thing to add that I failed to mention - the eggs are all in the bottom of the cells (the back of the cell). Also, it’s in a very localized area on the frame. Each cell in the area has half a dozen eggs or so.

 

[Michael Bush]

I wish the picture of the queen was bigger. Are you sure it's a queen?

 

[Nelsonhoneyfarms]

I wish the picture of the queen was bigger. Are you sure it's a queen?

After looking at the picture, I agree, it doesn’t look like a queen. I can tell you that it is a queen 100%. I green dotted her several weeks ago and she had shown a good eggs pattern at the beginning.

 

[rwlaw]

One thing that comes to mind is, has she been laying multiple eggs right along? As I’ve seen the situation with new queens before, it’s usually cleared up from one inspection to the next.

 

[Greeny]

I've had that happen with a queen in a split where I didn't have enough bees. She seemed to be laying only in the area of two facing frame sides covered by just a handful of bees. She was laying 4 to 8 eggs in a cell. I shook in a bunch more bees from neighboring brood frames and she very quickly laid in a nice pattern over several frames.

 

[bushpilot]

I had a queen come out of winter last year that quit laying. The hive went laying worker, and in the end I pinched the queen and shook out the hive.

But I suspect (hope) yours is different.

 

[Nelsonhoneyfarms]

One thing that comes to mind is, has she been laying multiple eggs right along? As I’ve seen the situation with new queens before, it’s usually cleared up from one inspection to the next.

Thanks. On the first egg check several weeks ago, she had a good "normal" single egg per cell pattern. My notes on this nuc are pretty short and sweet, but that would have made it onto the notes if I had seen it.

Next clear day I get (which may be a while lol), I'm going to go through frame by frame and take a look. Due to time limitations, my inspection yesterday was only that one frame. I may end up doing the ole "laying worker shake" when all is said and done.

 

[Roland]

She's a rookie, give her a chance to settle down and get the hang of laying..

Crazy Roland

 

[Nelsonhoneyfarms]

Checked again today. Went through the nuc. Not looking good. This pic shows it good. Got a close up of the queen that is in the nuc as well.

 

[Greeny]

Checked again today. Went through the nuc. Not looking good. This pic shows it good. Got a close up of the queen that is in the nuc as well.

I'm still going with too few bees in the box. There's hardly any bees around your queen in the latest pic, and there's barely any bees on the brood in your first pic.

 

[Woodstove]

The queen is the only bee in the colony with an abdomen long enough to reach the floor of a worker cell. If they were laid on the sidewalls of the cells, it would be a really strong indicator that there might be laying workers in the hive. Since they appear to be laid on the floor of the cell, it only makes sense that they would have been laid by the queen.

If I were to come across the same problem in one of my nucs, I think I would give it a frame of emerging brood to see if more nurse bees would correct the problem.

 

[Nelsonhoneyfarms]

I'm still going with too few bees in the box. There's hardly any bees around your queen in the latest pic, and there's barely any bees on the brood in your first pic.

Greeny, thanks for the advice, somehow I missed your original post. I just caught a small swarm. I think I'm going to shake most of those bees (minus the queen of course) into this hive a give them a few days.

 

[billdean]

You sure that's a queen or did you paint a worker bee. Not going to find much room to lay on a frame of nectar.

 

[Nelsonhoneyfarms]

You sure that's a queen or did you paint a worker bee. Not going to find much room to lay on a frame of nectar.

Yeah, it’s a queen. There’s a frame adjacent to this one that is open and ready for eggs.

 

[Nelsonhoneyfarms]

Thanks for all the advice - since I’m a hobbiest beekeeper and a full time Dad, there’s only so many hours in the day to spend on the bees. I wasn’t able to try all the advice, but I still wanted to say thanks.

Got back into the hive to shake addional bees into it. Queen was gone. Assuming they decided to kill her. The laying worker had made its way onto another brood frame and started laying in the open cells. I shook everything out and absorbed them into other hives.

On the bright side, other nucs had successfully queened up and are now bursting with bees!

 

[JWPalmer]

Hmm. That sure did not look like a queen to me, and I have had a few small ones. The eggs in the cells did look LW. But, problem is already solved. Good luck going forward.