- Joined
- Jul 5, 2010
- Messages
- 1,502
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- 0
- Location
- Northern Ireland
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- >20
One of my colonies was struggling with only a very small area of capped worker brood present and with several frames of stores including syrup, honey and pollen. The Queen is marked (Aug 2011 hatch). There was no sign of faeces staining on the combs. I transferred them into a poly nuc and donated two good frames of emerging brood along with the adhering young bees. This was done as an experiment to see if the colony would pull around. Despite the rather crappy weather my colonies (including this one) have continued to bring in an amount of nectar and are storing a surplus.
Two weeks ago most of the donated brood had emerged and I was pleased to see that the queen had laid eggs over a frame and a half. No larvae were present. I checked the Nuc yesterday hoping (but not expecting) that I would see larvae and sealed brood. No such luck. Absolutely no larvae or sealed brood but the same area as the previously mentioned was laid up with eggs. All the eggs were dead centre in the bottom of the cells and the Queen was running around on the frames and I watched her laying in one or two cells. This is the interesting bit. There were multiple eggs in a good number of the cells. Some of these were dessicated and resemble the aftermath of laying workers where eggs have failed to hatch and have dried out with more eggs subsequently being laid into the cells.
Why would the workers not clear out the 'dead' eggs?
I am a little surprised that this queen is not a drone layer. Does anyone have a plausible explanation as to why her eggs are not hatching? Clearly she was 'defective' but I'd love to see your responses/thoughts about this.
For info the Nuc was made queenless and I may continue the experiment on Friday, weather permitting, by donating a frame or two of emerging brood and eggs.
Two weeks ago most of the donated brood had emerged and I was pleased to see that the queen had laid eggs over a frame and a half. No larvae were present. I checked the Nuc yesterday hoping (but not expecting) that I would see larvae and sealed brood. No such luck. Absolutely no larvae or sealed brood but the same area as the previously mentioned was laid up with eggs. All the eggs were dead centre in the bottom of the cells and the Queen was running around on the frames and I watched her laying in one or two cells. This is the interesting bit. There were multiple eggs in a good number of the cells. Some of these were dessicated and resemble the aftermath of laying workers where eggs have failed to hatch and have dried out with more eggs subsequently being laid into the cells.
Why would the workers not clear out the 'dead' eggs?
I am a little surprised that this queen is not a drone layer. Does anyone have a plausible explanation as to why her eggs are not hatching? Clearly she was 'defective' but I'd love to see your responses/thoughts about this.
For info the Nuc was made queenless and I may continue the experiment on Friday, weather permitting, by donating a frame or two of emerging brood and eggs.
