I grafted for the first time back on April 3rd. I grafted 20 larvae and 10 were accepted and fully drawn into queen cells. I put them into 10 nucs. As of today, only three have emerged. Is this normal? If not, how long should I wait before I assume that something went wrong with these fully-drawn queen cells? There are some emergency queen cells in some of these nucs and I'd like to utilize them if I can/need to.
Variation in queen emergence time?
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According to this you may have a problem. http://www.thebeeyard.org/queen-rearing-calendar/
I just completed my first but it was right on schedule.
I just completed my first but it was right on schedule.
Might as well, it would be a bummer to toss them right before they hatched. As miraculous and efficient as bees are I would be surprised if they didn't tear down and discard a bad cell within a day of it being overdue/dead. Good luck, I hope they emerge for you.
Typically I'd say +-1 day it's 16 days from when the egg is laid (or 12 days from when they were grafted) but they could be as much as two days late in cold weather and as much as a day early in hot weather and as much as another day early if you grafted some old larvae... so between 14 and 18 days from when the egg was laid, or between 10 and 14 days after you grafted is possible.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm
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How does one apply this calendar if one puts eggs and open brood into a hive so they can make their own Queen. Do you put the graft date as the date you put the frame in or assume the "bee graft" is 3 days after the frame is put in to estimate egg hatch time?
If you move a frame with eggs and open brood into a Queenless hive when can one expect a Queen to hatch? Is it considered egg laid day when you move the frame or the equivalent of graft day?
If you have Queen cells on a frame and have a caged Queen in the hive will the workers destroy the Queen cell?
I have a colony with tiny cups...like a tiny half egg on the face of a frame, I also have another Queenless hive that has longer more cylindrical cells near the edge of the frame. They look quite different. The first hive with the tiny cups has a Queen below an excluder and these are above it.
Will either possibly end up as a Queen?
Thanks
To be on the safe side, I would probably plug in the graft date as four days later than you moved the frame with eggs. In my recent scenario I moved a frame on the 15th of March, she emerged on the 28th, and I had two day old larvae this past Tuesday the 15th, ahead of schedule by a few days.
I live just south of you and its been way too cold to be trying to raise queens. They wont get mated in the kind of weather weve been having. I did the same thing last year. Had a bunch of nucs with good queen cells hit a cold spell of weather and several of them were dead in the cells and the ones that did emerge never mated and the ones that did mate didnt mate well. The weather was cold and rainy. Ive just about gave up on trying to raise queens when the weather is still bad. My hives are just now getting a few drones in them. I probably live 35 minutes south of you. About another week or so before I graft me some. The 2nd round of queens i raised last year turned out really good. We were at 25 degrees at night two nights ago. Its been getting pretty cold at night still.
Thanks so much. I have no idea if I (the hive) will be successful but I moved the frames on April 11th which would put me looking to have a Queen around the 24th. I worry as the weather had changed again we are in a 2 week spell of cold and very wet weather. I have lots of drones but am concerned as to whether a virgin will be able to get mated in this weather
Thanks everyone for the replies and information. I am going to leave the cells in place but cut out and utilize the emergency cells as backups. Doing that, I will still have more queens than I really need. It did get down to 25 degrees at night 10 days after I did the graft but it should be in the 70s and mostly sunny for the next week or so. My hives all have plenty of drones. If these don't work out I'll just graft again, I guess.
I'm in the other Vancouver (USA), 300 miles south of you, and faced nearly identical weather. Unfortunately it was too early to order a queen so I had no other choice than to roll the dice. Until I see flatly capped worker brood this weekend Im still worried that I may be looking at a laying worker scenario. Saw larvae and a queen yesterday but she seemed a little small to me.Thanks so much. I have no idea if I (the hive) will be successful but I moved the frames on April 11th which would put me looking to have a Queen around the 24th. I worry as the weather had changed again we are in a 2 week spell of cold and very wet weather. I have lots of drones but am concerned as to whether a virgin will be able to get mated in this weather
Remember your queen will spend a week or so in the hive before she makes her mating flights, that gets you to May 1st ish, she can also wait a couple weeks if the weather stays cold and wet. I'll bet you get some nice 65-70 days in the first two weeks in May.
Since this thread seems to be doing well, I'd like to ask another queen-related question or two.
I checked one nuc on the 14th and the (emerged virgin) queen looked quite pale. I looked in on her again today and her color looked like the queen I grafted from. Is this normal?
Is it possible or likely for an inspection to disturb a queen returning from a mating flight such that she never comes back?
I have noticed that the virgin queens seem smaller (I did walk-away splits last year) and I do think that is normal as she's not full of drone sperm.
I checked one nuc on the 14th and the (emerged virgin) queen looked quite pale. I looked in on her again today and her color looked like the queen I grafted from. Is this normal?
Is it possible or likely for an inspection to disturb a queen returning from a mating flight such that she never comes back?
I have noticed that the virgin queens seem smaller (I did walk-away splits last year) and I do think that is normal as she's not full of drone sperm.
I mentioned it earlier...
Hive with a Queen below excluder and above the excluder a few small goblet shaped cells...open..not drone or worker cells
Hive with no Queen has oblong cells with a rough surface , larger than the smooth goblet cells and near the edge of the frame.
Are these different variations of Queen cells or totally different things?
Hive with a Queen below excluder and above the excluder a few small goblet shaped cells...open..not drone or worker cells
Hive with no Queen has oblong cells with a rough surface , larger than the smooth goblet cells and near the edge of the frame.
Are these different variations of Queen cells or totally different things?
I'm clearly not the expert here, but I believe the goblet shaped cells are false or aborted queen cells. The peanut-shaped, vertically-oriented cells are queen cells and since they are grouped along the edges I believe they are supercedure or swarm cells. But you said that hive has no queen so they must be emergency queen cells, which tend to be located wherever there is suitable larvae, so probably it is just a coincidence that they are on the edge.
>If you move a frame with eggs and open brood into a Queenless hive when can one expect a Queen to hatch?
Well, she hatched four days ago. She should emerge 12 days later.
> Is it considered egg laid day when you move the frame or the equivalent of graft day?
They will start with a just hatched larvae, so it is four days old when they start. Yes, it would be the equivalent of "graft day".
>If you have Queen cells on a frame and have a caged Queen in the hive will the workers destroy the Queen cell?
Maybe. Maybe not.
>I have a colony with tiny cups...like a tiny half egg on the face of a frame, I also have another Queenless hive that has longer more cylindrical cells near the edge of the frame. They look quite different. The first hive with the tiny cups has a Queen below an excluder and these are above it.
Cups mean nothing.
>I checked one nuc on the 14th and the (emerged virgin) queen looked quite pale. I looked in on her again today and her color looked like the queen I grafted from. Is this normal?
Yes. It's generally referred to as "hardening". Sometimes a newly emerged queen is practically transparent.
> Is it possible or likely for an inspection to disturb a queen returning from a mating flight such that she never comes back?
Not likely. Not impossible.
>I have noticed that the virgin queens seem smaller (I did walk-away splits last year) and I do think that is normal as she's not full of drone sperm.
Yes, that is normal. She is also very "runny" and likes to hide.
>Hive with no Queen has oblong cells with a rough surface , larger than the smooth goblet cells and near the edge of the frame.
The cups are nothing. Someday they may or may not be used for queens. A new queen cell is smooth. They put the filigree on it later by removing some of the wax here and there.
>Are these different variations of Queen cells or totally different things?
The cup may get an egg in it later, but basically until then they are totally different things. If it gets a larvae in it I would consider it a queen cell.
Well, she hatched four days ago. She should emerge 12 days later.
> Is it considered egg laid day when you move the frame or the equivalent of graft day?
They will start with a just hatched larvae, so it is four days old when they start. Yes, it would be the equivalent of "graft day".
>If you have Queen cells on a frame and have a caged Queen in the hive will the workers destroy the Queen cell?
Maybe. Maybe not.
>I have a colony with tiny cups...like a tiny half egg on the face of a frame, I also have another Queenless hive that has longer more cylindrical cells near the edge of the frame. They look quite different. The first hive with the tiny cups has a Queen below an excluder and these are above it.
Cups mean nothing.
>I checked one nuc on the 14th and the (emerged virgin) queen looked quite pale. I looked in on her again today and her color looked like the queen I grafted from. Is this normal?
Yes. It's generally referred to as "hardening". Sometimes a newly emerged queen is practically transparent.
> Is it possible or likely for an inspection to disturb a queen returning from a mating flight such that she never comes back?
Not likely. Not impossible.
>I have noticed that the virgin queens seem smaller (I did walk-away splits last year) and I do think that is normal as she's not full of drone sperm.
Yes, that is normal. She is also very "runny" and likes to hide.
>Hive with no Queen has oblong cells with a rough surface , larger than the smooth goblet cells and near the edge of the frame.
The cups are nothing. Someday they may or may not be used for queens. A new queen cell is smooth. They put the filigree on it later by removing some of the wax here and there.
>Are these different variations of Queen cells or totally different things?
The cup may get an egg in it later, but basically until then they are totally different things. If it gets a larvae in it I would consider it a queen cell.
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