Eggs in a super

[Neil]

Hi all,

Did an inspection before noticed that one of our supers had a patch of newly laid eggs in one of the frames in the centre. They have only just started to use the super, and there is plenty of room in the brood box. The queen isn’t the largest I have seen and wasn’t present in the super she was in the brood box. I was unsure whether the queen could fit through the queen excluder or the bees have just moved the eggs, whichever, I was just wondering will the bees take them from the super and move them back down into the brood box.

Would appreciate any advice on this.

Thanks.

 

[mandabow]

Hi all,

Did an inspection before noticed that one of our supers had a patch of newly laid eggs in one of the frames in the centre. They have only just started to use the super, and there is plenty of room in the brood box. The queen isn’t the largest I have seen and wasn’t present in the super she was in the brood box. I was unsure whether the queen could fit through the queen excluder or the bees have just moved the eggs, whichever, I was just wondering will the bees take them from the super and move them back down into the brood box.

Would appreciate any advice on this.

Thanks.

is your queen old? (or failing)

it could be that her pheramones are getting weak which is allowing some of the worker bees to develop ovries, and they may be laying drone's in the supers where her pheramones are even weaker 'cos she can't get there.

don't think the workers will move them down. they may abandon them there if not enough nursebees go up there (once there dead they will be removed). or they may feed and cap them up there (if the queen is really failig.. if she's doing okish the lack of queen pheramone on the eggs will make them likely to reject and not feed them).

if they are worker eggs then they are often not at the bottom of the cell as they arn't as elongated as a queen so will often be stuck on the side not deep a the bottom.

 

[thurrock bees]

place the Q excluder on WITH the Queen below in the Brood box. The bees wont move the eggs they will raise them untill they hatch. there could be a small chance that the eggs/brood in the super may get chilled but i would not personnally worry about that.

If after a week with the Queen excluder on there is more eggs in the super you could have three things happening...

1 The Queen can fit though the excluder-- look for larger bent places.

2, two queens in your hive. Let the bees sort out which queen stays and goes, just put both below the excluder.

3, Laying workers, abit unsual if the Queen is laying well and only has one super on the hive.

 

[Midland Beek]

Bees do not move eggs.

1/ You got two laying queens and the bees are part way through supersedure.

2/ You got an undersize queen able to fit through a queen excluder.

3/ In any colony there are workers capable of laying eggs. They usually just lay the odd one here or there before they get destroyed. I can't imagine a worker laying a patch of eggs. Were the eggs on the bottoms of the cell? If so, it would have to be a queen that has layed them.

 

[Neil]

Should have mentioned the queen was from A/S last season. She is laying up ok not the strongest of colonies but doing ok. Thanks