[Gray Goose]

Had not thought about the virgin possibility but I don't think my timeline would support it. Here are key dates:

Day 4 -checked to confirm queen release (she was)
Day 7 - small amounts of pollen being brought in
Day 9 - quick glance revealed comb being built on 4-5 frames, but small amounts; did not check for queen, eggs, brood, etc.
Day 18 - comb being drawn on 6 frames; no eggs or brood of any kind; noticed queen cells
Day 20 - confirmed with another beekeeper that no eggs or brood and that drawn cells were emergency cells

What is strange is they still are bringing in pollen, building comb and have good energy.

If there had been a virgin in the package certainly by now she would have been mated and laying, correct?

Kevin

what if she is too old to mate?
they have a queen will not accept another, no eggs.
could have been a virgin in the package.

so you need to look close for the queen if no queen or eggs and you have another hive add a frame with eggs and this time let the queen hatch.

you either have or do not have a queen.... could have a not laying queen... sound like a mystery.

GG

 

[Gray Goose]

So I came back to my hive yesterday and I think I see where it is heading, but I'm not sure all clues point in that direction.

This photo below shows capped drone brood which might be indicative of laying workers, but at this time of year it would not be unusual to have frames of brood. If you blow up the photo you can actually see some cells with single eggs on the bottom which is contrary to laying workers. I will note that I did not see any capped worker brood on any of the hive's original frames.

View attachment 55763

This photo is the frame that I inserted around Day 19 from another hive. The bees NEVER drew any queen cells on this frame.

View attachment 55765

These next two photos raise additional questions for me on the nature of queen cells.

View attachment 55767
View attachment 55769

This is the first time that I have seen this uncapped queen cell and you can see it was drawn on a partially built frame so it is recent. My old eyes could no see whether it was charged or not. This leads me to the following questions:

1. Will a colony only build a supersedure cell if they know they have a viable mated queen that can lay in the cell?

2. Will a colony only build an emergency cell when there are worker eggs/larvae available? I understand that the bees can distinguish between worker eggs and drone eggs so if I have laying workers would they still try to build an emergency cell from drone eggs?

Thanks for all the great suggestions.

Kevin

I would let it ride. If they want a new queen, then let them do it. those are good cells to get it done.
PIC 2 is worker brood, pic 1 has too close drones IMO to be LW. LW is more spread out.

I would not worry about the LW in a false Q cell. in 21 days the new queen should be laying.

appears a normal Supercedure to me.

GG