I have 2 nucs that are Queenless. I gave them eggs,larva, brood about 3 weeks ago but no Queen cell seen. I thought one may have had one but when I checked the frame the end was open and the tip of a large larva was present...that was 3 weeks after giving the brood frame so am not certain what it was. There is no evidence of eggs or new brood in either hive so am certain they were Queenless when eggs were introduced.
I have given them each another frame of mainly eggs and and capped brood. Some eggs may have hatched but if so they were very tiny larvae as I couldn't tell...still looked like dry cells with eggs.
Thanks to the previous frame of brood there are reasonable numbers of bees in these nucs. Not over flowing but frames are covered. They have nectar,pollen,honey, a hive top syrup feeder and a protein patty.
Should I just leave them totally undisturbed except for filling the feeder for 3 weeks or check sooner? I worry I may have knocked a good Queen cell against an adjacent comb when I removed the frame to check. I have no idea if the tip of that cell was open due to my damage or something else. To be honest I have never knowingly seen a Queen cell but the damaged cell looked bigger than a drone cell, was not goblet shaped like a Queen cup, was oblong, pointed downward and had a fleshy white thing in it. It was not huge like the pictures people post of "good" grafted Queen cells.
Thanks
I have given them each another frame of mainly eggs and and capped brood. Some eggs may have hatched but if so they were very tiny larvae as I couldn't tell...still looked like dry cells with eggs.
Thanks to the previous frame of brood there are reasonable numbers of bees in these nucs. Not over flowing but frames are covered. They have nectar,pollen,honey, a hive top syrup feeder and a protein patty.
Should I just leave them totally undisturbed except for filling the feeder for 3 weeks or check sooner? I worry I may have knocked a good Queen cell against an adjacent comb when I removed the frame to check. I have no idea if the tip of that cell was open due to my damage or something else. To be honest I have never knowingly seen a Queen cell but the damaged cell looked bigger than a drone cell, was not goblet shaped like a Queen cup, was oblong, pointed downward and had a fleshy white thing in it. It was not huge like the pictures people post of "good" grafted Queen cells.
Thanks