[wannabeekeeper]

We hived a package about 3 weeks ago. Upon examination yesterday it appears that the queen that came with the package is gone and a new queen has been made due to the presence of an empty queen cell. Neither queen has been spotted and we do not have any brood. There are cells full of royal jellie. Do we order a new queen or wait and see? Help!

 

[mike haney]

if no eggs/brood now in the hive, wait a week, check again-then get a queen. best is a frame of new eggs from a nearby beekeep. contact yuur local club to see if one will hep you out. good luck,mike

 

[kiwiBee]

when you say you have cells full of royal jelly are you talking queen cells?
kiwi

 

[bigbore]

New Queen cell and no eggs, I would say Virgin Queen, give her a week or so. might be seeing nectar in the cells, and thinling royal jelly. 10 days or a frame of eggs, will give you your answer.

 

[Countryboy]

Is it a queen cell or a queen cup? If it is a queen cell, is it empty from the side being chewed out? Did it hatch from the bottom, or is it empty because it was never capped off because the bees had no egg to put in it?

How many days (exactly) has it been since you installed the package? Is there ANY sealed brood? If the queen was released on Day 1 (unlikely), and started laying eggs on Day 1 (unlikely), the baby bees from those eggs would be hatching today at Day 21 (3 weeks).

I would consider it very unlikely the original queen laid only one egg (which the bees used to supercede her) before the bees killed her off/threw her out. She would most likely have laid more than 1 egg.