Advice needed

[VW1]

Hi,

I got my first bees last year & successfully got them through their 1st winter. The queen was unmarked - I had never been able to find her but could see that she was working so wasn't too worried. The colony was very strong in april, but I was away the first weekend in may & I think that it swarmed then. When I checked the box on 3rd may, there were sealed queen cells, no eggs but larvae I estimate about 5-6 days old, and no queen that I could see.

On the next inspection on 7th may, 1 of the queen cells was opened (with the hinged lid), & I found the queen - I think just newly emerged. There were still a couple of sealed queen cells, so I put the queen & 2 frames of brood in a new nuc box, & left the sealed queen cells in the original hive.

Since then (now 3 weeks) there has been no sign of a queen in the original hive - still no eggs as of yesterday. In the nuc the queen was there, but not laying, and yesterday I couldn't see her at all - maybe out betting mated?

The weather here has been terrible since the 7th, with rain nearly every day, so I think there is a good chance the new queen has not been able to get mated.

My question really is, what to do now? Do I give it another week to see if I get a working queen? Or is 3 weeks long enough? I can take the hive to the apiary at the local association & put in a frame of eggs. Should I do this right away or wait?

Sorry for the long winded question - any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[VEG]

Wait a week or two longer.

 

[oliver90owner]

I think just newly emerged. There were still a couple of sealed queen cells, so I put the queen & 2 frames of brood in a new nuc box

A couple or three comments.

Unless you mean 'immediately' just emerged, you were likely too late in separating the queen and queen cells.

Do not inspect a colony with a virgin attimes when she may be on (or immediately before) a mating flight. A good way to lose her.

Moving a frame of eggs is far easier than moving a whole hive?

Veg is right. The easiest route is wait. three weeks is not necessarily long enough.

RAB

 

[VW1]

Thanks Craig & RAB for your quick replies. My worry is that if I wait I waill start to get laying workers, & then the game will be up! But I will give it another week or 2 & see what happens.

the reason I think the queen was just emerged was that the other queen cells were still intact. If the 1st job of the new queen is to destroy these, my assumption was that she was only just out.

The reason for moving the hive rather than moving a frame of eggs is that I've been told that transporting eggs outside of a hive will not work - they'll get cold & not survive if the frame is not just transferred direct - is this not correct? The apiary is only 20 minutes drive away.

Thanks again.

 

[oliver90owner]

transporting eggs outside of a hive will not work - they'll get cold & not survive if the frame is not just transferred direct

Not true. Very young brood are a bit of a problem (need warmth and humidity, and not too long in tansit) but eggs have been posted, I believe.

Regards, RAB

 

[huntsman666]

According to web beekeeping chatter, everyone got caught with a great start to the season in April only to see a miserable May.

Swarming has happened very eary this year, resulting in lots of virgin queens needing to go on their nuptial flights but have been prevented from doing so because of low temperature, 20C is ideal and when have we seen that over the last few weeks?

Forget about the books, the bees know best so just relax and give them much more time to get into gear than usual.

Yes I know it's hard and we love having a peek but I suggest you simply leave them alone until you see lots of pollen going in.

Hope it works out for you (and me.)

 

[Andy Coleman]

I did exactly what you have done - left one sealed QC in the main colony and put the existing Q into a nuc. That was on 22nd April, and following advice and books I haven't touched the main colony until yesterday. Yesterday found small amount of young uncapped brood, some eggs, so far all on one frame, and found and marked (rather ineptly!) the new white queen. So looks as though she only started work in the last week, which is 4 weeks after the sealed QC. I also found a couple of well advanced unsealed Q cells, which I was hoping not to, thought they might have got it out of the system. Destroyed them to buy a bit of time, and will watch what they do next. I wondered if because the new Q has not been active until the last week, her pheromones have not yet got well spread around the colony to switch off swarming behaviour, seems to be plenty of space. We shall see!

 

[VW1]

Just as an update for anyone in the same predicament s myself. With no sign of any queen activity, I finally gave up waiting & brought the hive into the apiary on 10th June (I thought the new queen would have a better chance to get mated there, as very few bees close to me). I asked a more experienced member to put in a frame of eggs for me, but he discovered that I had a queen and she had started laying!
So I had obviously missed her on my last inspection.

Anyway, all's well that ends well! Your advice was correct - it can sometimes take quite a while before a new queen gets mated & is back in the hive laying eggs, I suppose particularly in bad weather. In my case, it took almost 5 weeks. So the moral of the story is be patient!