[Ravenseye]

Hmmmm. I would decide based on your expectations. You're in a good time of the year for them making their own queen. Sounds like your hive has a good mix of brood, especially eggs. So, do you want a laying queen soon or can you wait for them to make a queen, get her mated and then laying? If you can, let it go and monitor. If you can't, get a store bought queen and kind of pick up where you left off. Oh, and remember that by buying a store bought queen you have a bit more control over the genetics...one way or the other. You like Italians maybe, so that's decided. If you wanted Carni's or Russian's or whatever, now is the time to do it.

 

[AmericasBeekeeper]

It is a question of patience and genetics. It will take just over two weeks for a queen to emerge and another week plus to mate, and three weeks until those bees emerge. A natural queen will mate with whatever drones are in your area, up to 20, so half the genetics are a gamble. So can you wait six weeks and take whatever you get?

 

[Billy Y.]

So this colony is just a little over a month old? Hmmmm.... Don't know if they will be strong enough because with a new queen it will be 5 weeks before you get any new brood hatching out. In the meantime the numbers you currently have will dwindle and the colony would be pretty weak by then. If you have any other colonies that you can move some capped brood frames over to that queenless hive in the next few weeks to boost population numbers you can probably get away with it. Otherwise, I'd buy a new queen.

 

[willyC]

Thanks everyone!

I have a new Italian Cordovan Queen on order.

I have not been contacted by the outfit (they will get my card number over the phone) so I could change the order to Carni which may do better in our cold weather. I "must" have gentle, well behaved bees, as they are in my back yard and the Italians have done well in the gentle department.

 

[khaas15]

I am a new to beekeeping this year so could be wrong here, but I think before you add the new queen you might want to remove any queen cells the hive may have produced. I have been told that a new virgin queen will kill an introduced queen every time. If you miss a cell you have just wasted your money.