[ziggy389]

Hello all,

Two out of my four nucs went queenless.

Picked up the nucs three weeks ago and installed them.

One nuc as five capped queen cells.

The other looked like there was one but it looked chewed off. I put a frame of open brood and eggs into that one.

Pissed at my supplier. is this common for nucs?

THink they will be ok?

Thanks

 

[Jim Braun]

I was just talking to my wife this morning about the weird things a hive does. If you go into a hive to often the queen can get replaced. If you move the hive a queen can get replaced. Lots of other reasons that the hive replaces the queen. If there's a problem blame the queen seems to be how they deal with change.

 

[Johnnymms]

Are you saying the nucs came without a queen? Or two of your hives swarmed? If the nucs came without a queen you would have no eggs present at all during the 3 weeks (I guess except in the first few days when existing eggs would be present). I had 2 nucs swarm and go queenless right from the get go last season. Consensus was the hives were crowded and go the urge to swarm before I got them. Once I installed them they already had made up their mind. I made sure they always had the correct amount of space and they still left. Long story short, they requeened themselves and are doing ok after a year. If you did have eggs during the 3 weeks that means the queen made the trip with the nucs and any number of things could have happened which may not be the fault of the supplier.