Multiple eggs in cells under queen cage

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

simonforeman

Field Bee
Joined
Jan 11, 2018
Messages
628
Reaction score
57
Location
lincolnshire
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
8
I have just been into one of my nucs to release a queen under an introduction cage for the last 5 days.

Released fine and she's strolling around like she's been there years. I noticed where the brood hatched under the cage the whole lot is layed up with multiple eggs.

Is this something normal and happens with queens being under a cage?
Is there a problem with this queen or now released she will sort herself out?
 
Its normal and even usual that they lay cells with multiple eggs during their confinement.
 
If you leave a queen in a cupkit queen box for more than a couple of days you get multiple eggs per cell.
 
They also lay multiples when starting to lay, but settle down quite quickly to singles.

Interestingly, Michael Palmer spoke about this at his presentation about queen rearing at the National Honey Show a couple of years ago . I had never seen that until this year when the crop failed on the farm near my apiary. Consequently, the colonies didn't build up as quickly as they normally would. The queen was very prolific and wanted to lay but the bees were unwilling/unable to do it. I noticed two eggs/larvae in cells over quite a large area.
I think it is a matter of balance: when the forage is available, the queen extends her nest and the colony expands normally. If she is limited, she re-uses the cells because she is in full-lay.
I had never seen this before this year so that was a new one on me too.
 
Thanks all for the comments to put my mind at rest.... hopefully she will turn out yo be a very good queen.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top