Eggs not hatching

[simonwig]

Hi

I've a newly raised queen, saw eggs first on 13 June.

She's laying, not prolifically, but none of the eggs are hatching. She's laid up on two frames, about 1/4 of each side. Nearly all single eggs at the bottom of the cell, very occasionally 2 eggs

I did spot a couple of larvae once, but they disappeared.

I don't know if the bees are removing the eggs and she's relaying, but there are some in the same cell after a couple of weeks.

Out of curiosity I added a frame of eggs and young larvae to see if they'd raise another queen, but no sign.

Queen looks well, the worker bees are attentive and feeding and grooming her.

I realise she's destined for the fence post, but wondered if this is common, first time I've experienced it, and if any thoughts about why it might be.



Simon

 

[blackcloud]

I've seen it a lot with caste swarms.
So long as everything else is ok the she's either not got the hang of it yet or she's just not up to the job

 

[simonwig]

I've seen it a lot with caste swarms.
So long as everything else is ok the she's either not got the hang of it yet or she's just not up to the job

Thanks

She was raised using Cupkit, all the other queens (that survived mating flights) on 3 or 4 capped frames now.

 

[Swarm]

Would she benefit from some extra nurse bees?

 

[Anduril]

What is your pollen situation like in the hive and the nurse bees, the bees could be cannibalising the larvae.

 

[simonwig]

Would she benefit from some extra nurse bees?

Worth a shake in, they started with a a frame of emerging brood, but they are ageing.
Simon

 

[simonwig]

What is your pollen situation like in the hive and the nurse bees, the bees could be cannibalising the larvae.

I can add a frame of pollen, so again worth a try.

I'll update in a week.

Simon

 

[elainemary]

Queens a

Hi

I've a newly raised queen, saw eggs first on 13 June.

She's laying, not prolifically, but none of the eggs are hatching. She's laid up on two frames, about 1/4 of each side. Nearly all single eggs at the bottom of the cell, very occasionally 2 eggs

I did spot a couple of larvae once, but they disappeared.

I don't know if the bees are removing the eggs and she's relaying, but there are some in the same cell after a couple of weeks.

Out of curiosity I added a frame of eggs and young larvae to see if they'd raise another queen, but no sign.

Queen looks well, the worker bees are attentive and feeding and grooming her.

I realise she's destined for the fence post, but wondered if this is common, first time I've experienced it, and if any thoughts about why it might be.

View attachment 32794

Simon

Queens seem to get the blame for all colony ills. Could it be the environment or state of the colony - not enough bees and forage?

David Tarpy gave a v interesting lecture on this, he argued the queen gets the blame for most colony issues, when the beekeeper coujd read the colony and identify other causes and help address.

He offered 4 scenarios around colony ‘ills’ or reasons why queens ‘go bad’:

Biological :spermatheca viability. Rearing conditions, pathogens

Chemical: queen & brood pheromones, pesticides

Management: acaricides, shipping , could be passively selecting for queens that don’t live as long by replacing queens annually. Keeping colonies in hives much bigger than in nature, so run out of sperm earlier, bigger and more productive than is ‘normal’. Also the opposite, too few bees to raise the brood

Environment: poor nutrition and environmental factors

On the latter, he cited Research where queens from colonies were swapped which had bad and good brood patterns - didn’t find a reversal. Much was down to the environment, so we’re attributing the bad brood development to the queen , the workers are raising the brood, so has as much to workers, and best environment not always down to poor queen quality


As others have suggested, add more nurse bees, a pollen frame, then reassess her before offering the fence post

 

[Nige.Coll]

Saw something similar.
She was a drone layer and the bees kept eating them.

 

[simonwig]

Slightly longer than a week.
They had plenty of pollen in store and plenty of bees but added a decent shake of nurse bees, no change.
She's still laying eggs and nothings happening to them, so it is the fence post.
I also tried giving one of her frames to another hive to see what happened, and as best I can tell they removed and replaced them.

Simon

 

[enrico]

Slightly longer than a week.
They had plenty of pollen in store and plenty of bees but added a decent shake of nurse bees, no change.
She's still laying eggs and nothings happening to them, so it is the fence post.
I also tried giving one of her frames to another hive to see what happened, and as best I can tell they removed and replaced them.

Simon

Thanks for the update, always good to know the ending!

 

[blackcloud]

That's odd
I've been following this as I have a tiny swarm doing the same.
I was about to tip them out on Sunday but there was larvae.
Still on death row mind you.