My first hive, virgin queen, one egg, no brood.

[ElectricBlueBee]

Hi Peeps!

My mentor caught me bees for my first hive. Small swarm that fits accross three national frames both sides.

I haven't seen the queen, the bees have been working since 26th April collecting nectar. Pollen every 40th or so bee going in.

On looking at them last week, no eggs or brood, panicky phone call to mentor got "she's probably a virgin, it'll take three weeks"

This 2nd'ish week, i look and find one egg neatly placed in the queen cup but no other eggs anywhere. Is that ok? If she can lay one, why not all the rest?

Any reasoning on that would be appreciated

On a side note, people ask me a question i can't answer about queen cup laying. If queen cups are dotted around 'spare', how come a queen doesnt just plonk one in their all the time on her rounds? Do the bees herd her into a queen cup and scream at her till she lays?

Thanks guys!

EBB

 

[Poly Hive]

I am very likely wrong.

Sods law comes to mind here and she happened to lay in the play cell.

Give it a week and see.

PH

 

[Midland Beek]

In any colony there are the odd few workers that are physically able to lay eggs. These usually get destroyed before hatching into a larva. Some have termed the special workers whose job it is to find and destroy these eggs, the 'bee police'.

And queens do not 'think' when they lay eggs. They lay fertile eggs in worker cells and queen cell cups; they lay unfertilized eggs in drone cells. When a queen lays an egg in a queen cell cup it is the workers that decide whether to allow the egg to develop into a new queen, or whether to destroy that egg. The process is in large part controlled by pheremones.

 

[ElectricBlueBee]

Ahh ok, thanks! Those were the only two things i could logically think of, nice to know i'm not too thick