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I have a colony that had a rather unsuccessful queen (seemed to have very tattered wings, perhaps poorly mated and very slow/patchy laying) and now seems to be Q-. I have united it through newspaper with a strong Q+ colony (a captured swarm). Whilst I'm confident that the original marked queen...

I should have been clearer. This was the colony where the queen was balled and has now disappeared.

Went in yesterday and found a frame of eggs and a very small new Queen. Yay. Patience, dear boy, patience...

Had a look in yesterday. Queen nowhere to be seen. I suspect she's brown bread. Interestingly there were no EQCs despite a wealth of very young larvae. There were, however, two of what I would normally assess as charged Swarm Cells (single QCs, edge of the brood nest/frame, one on each frame).

Not that I can be sure of. But in another nuc (where I also can't find a recently hatched queen) it looks to me as if the cells in the centre of what will be the brood nest are definitely being prepared. So I'm reasonable confident that there may be a young queen in that one. Bearing in mind...

The united queen is marked.

I didn't, no. But just to clarify, I didn't add a queen to a [Q-] swarm. I united the Q- colony (a housed swarm)* with a Q+ colony (ie, moved the former to the latter), which appears to have gone well. I then put a different queen and her followers into the newly vacated hive - the one left...

OK thanks. So would I be right in saying that one should leave 4 week from emergence before being concerned at any absence of eggs/brood? Maybe I'm jumping the gun.

Here's an odd one. I did a split 4 weeks ago, moving a frame with 4 charged QCs from a hive and into a nuc together with with bees and stores. 5 days later three of them were sealed in the nuc. All looked well. I went back in yesterday (22 days after finding the QCs sealed) to find no queen or...

Yup, maybe my mistake was assuming that it was a Prime. How long would you normally leave a hived-swarm before becoming worried about it being Q-?

With respect, I don't think that I did. If so, then they would have killed the queen in the colony I united them with, rather than the one that was subsequently put into to the hive that they had vacated. It is of course possible that it was a swarm with a virgin queen. But it was a huge swarm...

I've hit on an explanation which might hold water. I'd be grateful for comment. The original set of bees in the hive where I witnessed the balling yesterday was a large swarm I collected nearly 3 weeks ago. They were installed in the hive but appeared to be Q- insofar as after some 2+ weeks...

Did a split 3 days ago moving a marked queen, three frames of brood and plenty of bees from one hive to a new empty one. Re-checked today to see how she was settling in. Found the three frames of 'old' brood and 2 frames of new eggs. Hurrah. However on one frame found a pile of bees apparently...

Thanks for all that. My question still remains, however. What sustains the nurse bees and larvae in the upper brood-box if (as is the case with a Snelgrove Board) bees bringing stores into the colony can't move up the hive from the lower entrance because gauze physically separates the top brood...

I care. Or I wouldn't have asked. But thanks for your help.

Blimey... does no-one know?

I've run Demarees for the last couple of years with what I think is some success. They've resulting in large productive colonies in which I appear so far to have managed the swarming. The only drawback I've found is that the bees seem keen to store in the upper BB which seems eventually limits...

That could be it.

5 days ago I moved a frame with a sealed QC and three more frames of BIAS and bees from a colony and into a nuc as an attempt to make increase. I was to hoping to find today that the QC had emerged. Instead of that I found that it had disappeared and that three new QCs had been created. That...

I have in mind to try to go into next winter with a couple late splits in Nucs. I've two poly-nucs and a couple of wooden ones. If over-wintering a small colony in a poly-nuc, where do people keep the nucs? Presumably not out in the main apiary. And in terms of feeding, obviously I will aim to...