I came out of winter with a really strong hive. I saw capped queen cells on April 18. I did a split a week later with the mother queen. The split is doing well.
The parent hive raised a queen. I saw the virgin queen. She did not however manage to start laying. I looked for her twice with a friend and we couldn't find her. So on May 26 I introduced a mated queen after waiting 3 days. The bees were licking her and seemed non-aggressive towards her. Well, she is now missing and no sign of eggs except that now I have about 6 capped queen cells which means she must've laid a few eggs and then died or something. I have no evidence yet of laying workers. I have added a frame of eggs back into the parent hive from the split.
My options:
1. Wait it out and see if they succeed with the third queen
2. Find a mated queen somewhere
3. Combine the hive back together with the split.
4. Something else...
Ideas?
The parent hive raised a queen. I saw the virgin queen. She did not however manage to start laying. I looked for her twice with a friend and we couldn't find her. So on May 26 I introduced a mated queen after waiting 3 days. The bees were licking her and seemed non-aggressive towards her. Well, she is now missing and no sign of eggs except that now I have about 6 capped queen cells which means she must've laid a few eggs and then died or something. I have no evidence yet of laying workers. I have added a frame of eggs back into the parent hive from the split.
My options:
1. Wait it out and see if they succeed with the third queen
2. Find a mated queen somewhere
3. Combine the hive back together with the split.
4. Something else...
Ideas?
