[rkr]

Does a virgin or non-laying queen make them feel queen right?

I have a hive that had a two capped queen cells last week. This week one is open and the other is being torn down. I have seen no eggs or brood in awhile, the old queen "ran out" 3 weeks ago, to her credit she made it through the winter. She is taking an alcohol jacuzzi now.

I put a frame of eggs in fresh white wax in this hive last week. My though was if they need a queen they will make some emergence cells in the fresh new wax as a back up. This week they have raised the brood and capped it, but with no emergence cells.

I did not see a virgin queen but that does not mean anything. Do bees build queen cells when the have a Non-laying new queen or a virgin queen in the colony?

RKR

 

[AmericasBeekeeper]

They may or may not raise another queen with laying workers or unmated queen present. It will be a week plus before she flys, mates, and starts laying.

 

[kiwiBee]

I would say you have a virgin in your hive and it wont be long before you have a mated queen

Kiwi

 

[devdog108]

my origional hive decided to off their queen for some strange reason and they raised a new one. I was up at the hives one day and noticed alot of bustling going on. They were going to swarm with this newly mated queen beyond a shadow of a doubt. I moved her to a Nuc adn watched as about half the hive came with her...and they created more queen cells. When i inpected a couple of days ago, they were tearing down 4 beautiful queen cells with larvae in them. I couldn't undertsand why until i got to the last frame in the deep and saw that there were eggs everywhere. i must have just missed the queen. So basically, mine tore the cells down with the larvae and royal jelley in them...i was very surprised that i had a laying queen at that point. The time frame wasn't right, thats for sure, but all the eggs were almost dead center in the bottom of the cells, none on the sides at all, but there were a few that had 1-2 eggs instead of just a single egg.

 

[dtompsett]

... but there were a few that had 1-2 eggs instead of just a single egg.

Sounds like a new queen learning the ropes. (Pretty sure I read/watched a queen rearing video with Michael Bush the other day and he talked about this... sometimes it happens with new queens).


I really hope the weather warms up here and the hives start picking up. My one queenless hive looks like they might have a queen now... but it's hard to tell. No eggs to be found (except a single egg in a queen cell), but some freshly hatched larvae. Doesn't help that it's dusk when I'm doing these inspections.

And... I just moved all my hives last week... trying to figure out if the queen in one has gone on strike or something. Checked last night and no eggs to be found... but no queen cells either... but we've also had crappy weather since the move. Check again on the weekend to see if I can find anything (proper daylight hours)

I've got a nuc full of straggler bees "leftover" from the move... all the bees that got lost and couldn't find the new location. They could really use a frame of brood and eggs... if I could find one!

 

[devdog108]

Yeah, no doubt a new queen for sure. Interestingly that mean that the hive had to have had 2 queen in it. Reason being as I pulled out a laying queen...and less than a week later they have a laying queen. I have heard of it, just hadnt seen it as of yet....maybe i got lucky!!!