are you sure you have a queen? I read that a laying worker will lay multible eggs in comb.
Queen laying multiple eggs
I rescued an almost dead out 3days ago. I opened the hive and looked to see a queen (looks to be carniolan) and about half of one side of a frame of bees. The queen had a cluster of capped brood about 3" on one frame and aobut 4" on the opposite side of that cluster (think right side of frame 5 and left side of frame 6) Around the 3" cluster was 15-20 cells with multiple eggs (2-3-4-5 per cell) they were in the very bottom. I also saw single eggs, dead center, very bottom. I have eyes on the queen.... so I KNOW there is a queen there.
I pulled them out of the 10 deep and inserted into a nuc. I pulled a frame of capped brood w/support bees and inserted it between the existing capped cluster of brood.
Fast forward to today. The singles are in small larvae stage... and the multiple eggs dont seem to be doing anything. There are not many more eggs than what there were originally. The center of the capped brood is emerging now. There is about a 2" circle that has already emerged.
I dont have resources for pulling brood from another colony again. In retrospect I should have pulled open brood/eggs to give them an option of building a queen... but didn't.
My question is this. If I look in next weekend and find multiple eggs in the bottom of the cells does this mean my queen is failing? If I scrounge and find eggs, will the bees build another queen if she IS failing?
New guy definitely looking for advice. I started 5/10 with 2 nucs... and now am up to 5 strong colonies and this charity case. (I am going to insert this into an OB hive so I can see them come from the brink to a healthy hive hopefully)
Thanks for the advice.
Mark
I pulled them out of the 10 deep and inserted into a nuc. I pulled a frame of capped brood w/support bees and inserted it between the existing capped cluster of brood.
Fast forward to today. The singles are in small larvae stage... and the multiple eggs dont seem to be doing anything. There are not many more eggs than what there were originally. The center of the capped brood is emerging now. There is about a 2" circle that has already emerged.
I dont have resources for pulling brood from another colony again. In retrospect I should have pulled open brood/eggs to give them an option of building a queen... but didn't.
My question is this. If I look in next weekend and find multiple eggs in the bottom of the cells does this mean my queen is failing? If I scrounge and find eggs, will the bees build another queen if she IS failing?
New guy definitely looking for advice. I started 5/10 with 2 nucs... and now am up to 5 strong colonies and this charity case. (I am going to insert this into an OB hive so I can see them come from the brink to a healthy hive hopefully)
Thanks for the advice.
Mark
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
POSITIVE I have a queen. I've seen her every time I have looked in that particular hive. Little background is they were 'queenless' 3wks ago... I was going to shake them out when I found the queen 3 days ago and decided to try to nurse this charity case back to health.
I can probably go get a picture of her if needed.
I can probably go get a picture of her if needed.
sounds to me like what you have is a failing queen!!!
if she has not layed for sometime her scent will start to fail- once this takes place the hive thinks that it is queenless and if they had no eggs they cant make queen cells -
so then what happens after 3-4 weeks is that some workers start laying drone eggs - if they are in drone cells they will be on the bottem and 2-10 eggs in each cell - if they are in worker cells they will be on the sides
take the hive apart and shake ALL EVERY last bee into a pile about 300+ feet from the hive
then take a frame of eggs and brood from a queenrite hive a and place it in the now beelees hive - leave the bees on the frame for the queenrite hive -
make sure you dont have the queen on that loaner frame
put the hive back together and wait a week and check to see if they have made queen cells
--------------------
also i have had newly mated queens in my mini nucs lay several eggs in cells do to not enough room to make her happy and not enough bees to swarm
or she just didnt know how to pinch it off !!!!!
but it sounds like laying workers in your case
hope this helps
if she has not layed for sometime her scent will start to fail- once this takes place the hive thinks that it is queenless and if they had no eggs they cant make queen cells -
so then what happens after 3-4 weeks is that some workers start laying drone eggs - if they are in drone cells they will be on the bottem and 2-10 eggs in each cell - if they are in worker cells they will be on the sides
take the hive apart and shake ALL EVERY last bee into a pile about 300+ feet from the hive
then take a frame of eggs and brood from a queenrite hive a and place it in the now beelees hive - leave the bees on the frame for the queenrite hive -
make sure you dont have the queen on that loaner frame
put the hive back together and wait a week and check to see if they have made queen cells
--------------------
also i have had newly mated queens in my mini nucs lay several eggs in cells do to not enough room to make her happy and not enough bees to swarm
or she just didnt know how to pinch it off !!!!!
but it sounds like laying workers in your case
hope this helps
Its also possible that its a new vigorous queen, who doesn't have enough bees cleaning cells for her to lay in.
Freshly mated queens will often lay multiple eggs in the bottoms of cells until they get the hang of things. Since you were queenless 3 weeks ago, I'd suspect you have a freshly mated queen that is just getting started.
Laying workers lay many eggs on the sides of cells and on pollen. They can't reach the bottom of worker cells. I have seen them lay multiple eggs on the bottom of drone cells.
It sounds like this new queen is being held back by the small cluster. Adding a frame of brood should do wonders for this hive.
Laying workers lay many eggs on the sides of cells and on pollen. They can't reach the bottom of worker cells. I have seen them lay multiple eggs on the bottom of drone cells.
It sounds like this new queen is being held back by the small cluster. Adding a frame of brood should do wonders for this hive.
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
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