How long before new queen settles down?

[MandF]

I have a new queen in my polynuc, I was waiting to confirm she was mated ok (she is), and has been laying now for about a fortnight.

When I first checked the nuc I spotted a few eggs on a corner of a frame, so knew I had a queen. I then checked again a week later, and confirmed we had worker cappings, but I did notice a few cells which had 2 or 3 eggs in, and also strangely (as I thought the bees sorted this out) a couple of small larvae in a few cells.

Anyway, I just had a quick look through again, and she is still laying 2 or 3 eggs in some cells, and not at the same time as there are some eggs in cells with small larvae.

So, my question is, how long before she should be laying normally? As she is mated ok, reasonably big (I have marked her), and their temper is no worse or slightly better than the parent hive, I was going to re-unite with the parent and keep her for the winter. No signs of any supercedure cells, so the bees are happy enough with her at the moment.

 

[Finman]

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I have not noticed any settle down perionds with mated queens. They are there and OK.

At least my queens lay normally from very beginning. If they do not, they get a kick to their ash.

I have enough experience to decide is it good or bad. If I have not, kick me to ash.

Good laying depends on number of nursers bees and stores of pollen.

I bought a new queen some weeks ago and I noticed that it stopped laying. I look the combs and no pollen stores was thre and wearthers were rainy. It started again. Huge amount of brood in 4 frame nuc.
Then that gang emerge, again the colony needs two frames of pollen. Only place is to take from bigger hives.

The history of nuc is such that it consumes all pollen what it gets.

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[MandF]

I have read that a new queen can lay multiple eggs, I just wondered how long I need to give her - is there such a thing as a queen who doesnt learn to lay only 1 egg per cell?

 

[Finman]

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I have mating nucs too which have too few bees. 3-frame nuc have only cupfull of bees first. When queen has mated, it needs nurser bees and pollen. OK, then one pollen frame and one frame of emerging bees.'

Shook bees are dangerous They may attack at once on the queen. No reason to use them

It takes its own time to lay frames full. The queen have a huge capasity to lay. Only space and number of nurser bees limits what it does. In a small nuc a new queen may lay in a week one frame and in a big hive one box. When the hive is full, the queen push brakes.

 

[Finman]

I have read that a new queen can lay multiple eggs, I just wondered how long I need to give her - is there such a thing as a queen who doesnt learn to lay only 1 egg per cell?

Yes, I have read it too in this forum.

But I rear every year about 50 new queens and I cannot meet them in mating nucs.


There is something wrong if the queen lays 2 eggs into the cell.

My queen have minimum area when they start to lay, but I have looked that in every cell there is only one egg.

But I have seen that if the queen has no place to lay, it lets the eggs drop down.

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[MandF]

But I have seen that if the queen has no place to lay, it lets the eggs drop down.

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Ok, so it could be because she doesnt have space to lay? They have filled the nuc with a fair amount of stores, plus the outside frames are not fully drawn. She did have space to lay, but not enough if she wasnt slowed down - which is what might have happened?

 

[meidel]

Hi MandF I've found that the more bees the queen has to look after brood plus the more brood space there is for her to lay would probably encourage her to settle down - I had a mated queen in a mini nuc in the middle of last month. When combined with a colony of oldish bees, I gave them a frame of nurse bees with fully capped worker brood. When the brood emerged a week later the queen had laid eggs straightaway in the frame. I would have liked to have given her more such frames if I had them available but I didn't - I'm hoping that the bees would polish more frames for her to lay in over the next few weeks. So far at last weekend's inspection she'd filled 3 frames of brood. If they don't fill 5/6 frames with brood by the end of the season I'll probably unite them with another colony.