[chickintexas]

Finally! Success!!
On March 2nd we did a cutout as a nasty cold front started moving in. We didn't realize that it was going to get so cold so quickly! There were lots of drones in this hive and I also saw a few queen cells. After getting them set up in their new home, I checked on them on March 15th and saw that a queen cell was open. A couple of days later, another check showed that the two remaining queen cells had been destroyed. On day 19 after the queen had emerged, I did another check to look for eggs. Nothing! At this point I was thinking that the queen had been killed during her virgin flight and I started a desperate search to buy a mated queen. Everyone is sold out. I then started checking with my bee group to see if anyone had a frame of eggs they could spare. I finally got a response from a member and he told me to check my hive one last time. If there weren't any eggs then he was going to give me a frame of eggs/brood to help me out. I checked my hive yesterday afternoon and some new comb they built is almost entirely filled with new eggs! It's as if the new queen wants nothing to do with laying her eggs in the old cutout comb. :scratch: What I find interesting is that they built new comb over the old comb on the same frame. There is bee space between the new and old comb. I have two frames of foundation in a Lang super that they haven't touched yet. I didn't see the queen but she could have been between the new and old comb-or I just don't know how to spot her yet.

 

[Mangonpeach]

Is the cutout comb oriented the correct up/down direction?

 

[ruthiesbees]

congrats! I also had queen problems and hope I have eggs when I check this weekend.

 

[chickintexas]

Is the cutout comb oriented the correct up/down direction?

Cutout comb is oriented just the way it was when we removed it. It the photo I think you can tell that they had some funky stuff going on with how they were building their comb. The cutout was pretty much on the ground. It was under the roof remains of an ancient pop up camper. There were ants going in and out and we found SHB. As far as we can tell, all of the SHB are gone now since we installed a screened bottom board shortly after we got the bees home. This is the most pleasant hive I have ever dealt with. Very calm and quiet.

 

[chickintexas]

congrats! I also had queen problems and hope I have eggs when I check this weekend.

Crossing my fingers for you!

 

[marshmasterpat]

ChickinTexas - I have cutout comb in all 4 of my hives. They all were from cutouts and I get a lot of that type comb built on the edge of the frame. Frustrating as heck. I have been cutting it off with a bread knife and I pinch the top comb flat and insert into the groove on a new frame. I cut it straight across the top and make sure I insert it level. Have success about 1/3 of the time getting them to attach it to the new frame. And the queen will be laying in the new unfinished comb while there is a solid empty frame of old comb it is attached to.

They have built me some really pretty new comb that way and on empty frames. But they are building some of the craziest stuff on the cut out. I also have two sized workers, some are small cell size and the newer comb is slightly larger than the old. I don't know what they are doing.

 

[marshmasterpat]

P.S. - Congrats on the new queen and good luck.

 

[beepro]

Same here. I had 2 virgins hatched last week from a split. Still cannot find any white eggs on today's
hive inspection. Yesterday I cannot find the queen thinking she got lost or got eaten by the
bird while on her mating flight. From experience that the virgin can take the entire day from sunrise
to just before the sun goes down to come back to her hive. This afternoon I found the virgin on the
frame while she was inspecting into one of the cells. I think she is good now but not sure until I see
some eggs in another week or so. I think a virgin is just another bee running around on the frame but
a mated queen will inspect the cell before laying.