[ntxbeeman]

I have 3 hives currently queenless, and five that are queen right. Looks as if at least two of the queenless hives have had open queen cells in the last 10 days, but no eggs yet. They all still have a decent amount of bees and stores. My question is do I give them some more time to mate, or with the flow being imminent, do I go ahead and combine with other hives? I'm in North Texas. I would keep putting brood in there, but really only two of my other five hives are going gangbusters. The other three were requeened this year.

 

[tommysnare]

i have 3 wit the same issues. im gonna give them another week and then start worrying more. if not then ill start adding eggs and young larvae.

 

[NewJoe]

give them at least two weeks after they hatch to look for eggs....sometimes it may even take close to three weeks.

 

[Michael Bush]

>I have 3 hives currently queenless

No. You don't. Your virgin queens haven't even had time to go out and mate and get lost yet...

> and five that are queen right. Looks as if at least two of the queenless hives have had open queen cells in the last 10 days, but no eggs yet.

Exactly. The queens emerged sometime in the last 10 days. They will be laying sometime in the next 4 days to 3 weeks depending on when exactly they emerged and how nice the weather is.

http://bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm

If it helps you sleep at night, give them a frame of eggs from one of your "queenright" colonies.

http://bushfarms.com/beespanacea.htm