Have I killed my queen?

[Heather]

Yep, a dummy frame will be good- it reduces the size of the box so extra warmth for the brood and not so overwhelming for the bees to move around in -plus they will make silly comb in that space and they should be building on the frames.

Possibly the larvae you found could have been a drone one which was 'uncapped' on your frame management- it does happen to us all and the drone are sometimes on the periphery, so easily knocked off.
Patience is the game- and dont worry too much -
Have you someone nearby who could mentor you through this year- its a tremendous help and stops sleepless nights

 

[BabyBee]

thanks everyone for all the helpful advice. and yes, Heather I have a couple of great mentors - only I know how busy they are, not only with their own hives but helping all the newbies as well! Not to mention regular training sessions that they deliver, so I plan to ask them as seldom as possible - without being silly about it of course - and thought I'd like to elicit others views as well. This is a fab site and I really appreicate the opinions and views of everyone.

 

[BabyBee]

so either I've not been around when the weather has been good or else, when i have been around, the weather has been rubbish & now I'm in a quandry. Havent been into the bees since last wednesday & now not sure if i should or not.

if the queen has hatched or is due to, will my looking in the hive upset things? should i wait a few days - maybe end of the week - and check then?

 

[Heather]

Yes, you may disturb the colony by looking if the queen has just emerged. Go and do some gardening - anything- but leave the bees to sort themselves out - What if you were in there when she was returning and she was disturbed by the extra activity??!! One of the biggest problems bees have is - beekeepers... Just relax, wait 2 weeks for her to get established as a laying queen - you will be busy enough soon -

 

[rae]

Well, the good news is that one of our colonies that was in exactly the same state as yours 3 weeks ago has delivered a big fat queen, 4 frames of eggs and larvae. So it does seem to work!

There are two schools of thought on checking:

1) That you should carry on checking

2) That you should not, on the basis that you might disturb the newly mated ex-virgin returning home.

In your position (where you are probably still worried about the original larva), I would quickly check, you will either have a capped queen cell or a hatched queen cell (circular hole in the top). If either of those, put the frame back and leave well alone for a while. If neither of those (torn down queen cell, no queen cell), go buy a queen!

 

[rae]

Two beekeepers, two different pieces of advice. Try asking 4 beekeepers, then you'll get 5 answers....

 

[Polyanwood]

Funny rae!

I suppose that as long as we are opening the hive with a purpose more than to satisfy our curiosity that is OK. One of the mistakes we all make as beginners is to open the hives too frequently and unnecessarily - as each time we open the hive we disturb the bees and slow them down.

 

[BabyBee]

thank you - though now that i have 2 differing thoughts i still dnt know what to do for the best! and am also worried in case i need to add either more frames and/or more syrup........

as a new-bee, what is best....?

 

[Polyanwood]

If the weather is bad and the nuc did not have much stores in it, then you should just lift the roof, fill the feeder and replace the roof... you don't want them to starve. If weather good and there was already stores in the nuc, you need not worry about them starving, but most people will feed sugar syrup to help them draw the foundation,,,but that is optional rather than essential.

Do you know when your queen cell was due to emerge?

 

[BabyBee]

If the weather is bad and the nuc did not have much stores in it, then you should just lift the roof, fill the feeder and replace the roof... you don't want them to starve. If weather good and there was already stores in the nuc, you need not worry about them starving, but most people will feed sugar syrup to help them draw the foundation,,,but that is optional rather than essential.

Do you know when your queen cell was due to emerge?

I got the hive a week past sunday and it wasnt sealed then, so if i add 9 days (assuming it was sealed soon thereafter), then i think around now she should be emerging...but of course i dont actually know when (or if) it was sealed so i'm in a bit of a quandry!!

 

[rae]

Think through the options.

1. It was the queen you saw on the doorstep. You don't check for about 2 weeks, you find a torn down queen cell and some bewildered bees. You buy a queen and a few days later, you get eggs.

2) It wasn't the queen, the queen is fine, you check in 2 weeks and you find eggs and a fat queen.

Summary - it doesn't matter, in 2 weeks time (+ or - a few days), you will have eggs.

A suggestion - if you have half an hour on a warm day, sit by the hive. You may well hear piping (have a listen to the sticky thread on piping). Ours were doing this pretty constantly, and if you hear this, then all is well.

 

[Polyanwood]

Well it takes 16 days from egg to emergence for a queen.. I estimate your open queen cell would have been about on day 5-8, so add the week and 2 days so that gives you an estimate of your queen being slap bang in the middle of her emergence window. i.e she might be on day 14 and due to emerge in a couple of days, or she might have already emerged.

Based on my dodgy maths (happy for the numerate to correct me) I would recommend that you leave them alone. Newly emerged queens don't like being disturbed and on the chance that she is out on a mating flight, she might get lost on her return if hive is open.

I know you are keen to have a look though... if you are certain you know what a newly emerged queen cell looks like, then you could have a peek at the cell on Sunday, but no point looking at other frames. No point looking for the virgin as ou need to keep it brief.

Good Luck.

PS just saw Rae's answer which is good too!

 

[Poly Hive]

And if you see a sealed cell then what?

Give it a gentle poke with your hive tool as a favourite trick of workers is to seal up the cell tip so it looks as if she is still in there.... Oh and just to further confuse for some reason they not uncommonly have a dead worker in to boot.

fun innit...

PH

 

[BabyBee]

and there was me thinking that bee keeping would be the calming part of smallholding life!!!!! blooming 'eck, these bees are causing me more worry than all the other animals (not to mention humans) put together!

ok - so I'm going to check that they have syrup feed today but apart from that i am going to do nothing - actually, maybe I'll check tonight when they are all home and even if queenie is out,, she'll be home by then surely?