Package queen issue

1039 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by mgburton, Apr 26, 2014

mgburton

Discussion Starter · Apr 23, 2014

Good morning all,

I started three packages three and a half weeks ago. Two are doing great and already have capped brood. The third not so much. They've built out about 5 frames of comb and have capped stores, but the queen is not laying. I gave them a frame of eggs last Thursday to see if they would draw queen cells and they have. Found about three of them yesterday when I opened the hive. As Murphy's Law would have it, I also found eggs on the frames that belong to that hive. I didn't find many, maybe 10 per frame on 2 frames.

So I'm wondering if maybe I didn't give her enough time to lay, or if she really is failing. What do you guys think?

I should also point out that this package had a queen that was sold as a Minnesota Hygenic, and my other two packages had straight Italian queens. Not sure if that makes a different.

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tommyt

· #2 · Apr 23, 2014

The bees know best
Take that queen and make a split
It's a win win
If for some reason the new queen doesn't mate or return
You can combine the Nuc back

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mgburton

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 23, 2014

tommyt said:
The bees know best
Take that queen and make a split
It's a win win
If for some reason the new queen doesn't mate or return
You can combine the Nuc back

I like the way you think! I thought about that. I did something similar with my established hive when it had queen cells and ended up with four hives.

My only concern would be that there are only 5 frames drawn out and it was a three pound package. Could I still do a split with that?

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mgburton

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 26, 2014

Ok. Checked again today and pretty much every cell has an egg in it. There are a couple with two, and a couple with eggs on the side. I know this could be a sign of laying workers, but it could also be the sign of a young queen. I've seen that before in another hive, left it alone and things we're fine.

The thing is, I can't find the queen anywhere, and every time I've been in that hive, and all the others I've started, I've been able to find the queen.

So what do you guys think? I've got about 5 queen cells on the frame that I transplanted. There's maybe 5 frames that are drawn out. Can I take two, put them in a nuc, and see how it pans out?

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