[csalt09]

I checked one of my hives today and found the queen which came from a queen cell I put in on 4-16. I found and marked her on 4-20. I did not find any eggs or brood in the hive today. Should I requeen or wait a little longer?

 

[jimsteelejr]

Give her a few more days. It takes several days after the queen hatches to mature, go on mating flights and start laying. If by next weekend you are not knee deep in brood then replace her.

 

[warmbees]

I've adopted a policy of waiting until queens are mated and laying before marking. I figure that anything that makes her different, might interfere with the mating process and acceptance by the colony. Once they are laying well, I figure the colony will get healthy doses of pharimones, which might overpower any residual ink smells. I've marked early, and then found them quickly superseded. Last year I had one fly away while I was attempting to mark her. Luckily she flew back to the parent hive and happened to enter above the queen exclude'r. I was happy to see her back, however she made a mess of my nice honey frames. 5 of my honey frames had become partial brood frames. I just moved her and those frames to another box, and voila, new hive. I'm using a queen marking kit to prevent a fly away in the future.

 

[burns375]

I would give her a few more days, check next weekend. If you had alot of rain or cold weather she could be delayed.

 

[csalt09]

I'll give her one more week. I marked four queens and two disappeared and they were virgins. I'll wait to mark them for now on.

 

[csalt09]

I checked on 4-20 and she was already hatched, so shes at least 14 days from emergence.

 

[Michael Bush]

I don't expect to see eggs until two weeks after they emerge. I don't give up until three weeks after they emerge.