I bought a swarm from another beekeeper a week ago, which at the time had some capped worker and drone brood, but no eggs or larvae.
At first I thought that maybe they were queen less, but I found a queen in the hive. She is very small, only a tiny bit larger than a worker bee, and black, so maybe a Russian queen.
The three times I checked on the hive, she isn't acting like the other queens I've seen, she is wandering around aimlessly while the other bees do there thing, and the other bees don't get close to her. Usually you can see the other bees cluster around the queen, but not with this one.
It's been a week, and no eggs or larvae. Not sure if she's a new queen and still mating or if she has another problem?
Any idea what might be going on? I have some new queens coming on Thursday and I'm thinking of requeening. I've never seen a queen this small, all my other hives have big fat Italian queens...
At first I thought that maybe they were queen less, but I found a queen in the hive. She is very small, only a tiny bit larger than a worker bee, and black, so maybe a Russian queen.
The three times I checked on the hive, she isn't acting like the other queens I've seen, she is wandering around aimlessly while the other bees do there thing, and the other bees don't get close to her. Usually you can see the other bees cluster around the queen, but not with this one.
It's been a week, and no eggs or larvae. Not sure if she's a new queen and still mating or if she has another problem?
Any idea what might be going on? I have some new queens coming on Thursday and I'm thinking of requeening. I've never seen a queen this small, all my other hives have big fat Italian queens...
