New Queen laying Eggs Everywhere...

[Bee-Key-Pur]

I have a hive that has a young queen in it, whether she mated or not, I don't know as yet.
But she is laying eggs everywhere, 2, 3 & 4 to a cell, even on top of pollen.

In some of the cells I can see 2 & 3 young larvae growing in each cell. At what point do the workers sort them out, or don't they.
What does happen in this situation?

Thanks.

Brian.

 

[nonstandard]

Are the eggs in the base of the cells or on the sides? If they are on the sides it could be a laying worker, otherwise it's just your queen trying to work things out.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

Hi NonStandard.

The eggs are all on the base of the cells...

Brian

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

In some of the cells I can see 2 & 3 young larvae growing in each cell. At what point do the workers sort them out, or don't they.
What does happen in this situation?

Thanks.

Brian.

The workers will sort it out - "bees don't like twins" as I was told by an expert on the weekend.

 

[Poly Hive]

I have a hive that has a young queen in it, whether she mated or not, I don't know as yet.
But she is laying eggs everywhere, 2, 3 & 4 to a cell, even on top of pollen.

If she was not mated she would NOT be doing this, she is learning to control her egg laying and it can take some of them a few days. Worry not the bees will sort it all out for you. Non mated queens do not lay.

PH

 

[susbees]

How much space has she got to lay? Or have they been fed and the box is full up?

 

[ROACHMAN]

Do non mated queens become drone layers ?

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

How much space has she got to lay? Or have they been fed and the box is full up?

She has lots of space and seems to be laying in the 3 centre frames only, but there lots empty cells on frames both sides of these...

Brian

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

Non mated queens do not lay.

PH

Hi PH.

Can you clear that up for me, I thought that if a virgin queen went unmated, she became a drone layer?

brian

 

[Hivemaker.]

Do non mated queens become drone layers ?

Yes.

 

[enrico]

I agrree and I am confused. If non mated queens don't lay then how can they lay drone eggs!!!!

 

[Poly Hive]

Because they can lay non ferliilised eggs.

Time to do some reading....

PH

 

[dan1]

is that right? Because mated queens obviously produce drones.

 

[dickbowyer]

I had similar in a nuc hived with a caste swarm 4 weeks ago. Saw HM a few days later but not since. It was quite a small caste and still can not find her. Eggs on sides and multiple at base of cells - see picture. My assumption is laying workers.

 

[susbees]

She has lots of space and seems to be laying in the 3 centre frames only, but there lots empty cells on frames both sides of these...

Brian

I expect some queens are quicker on the uptake than others....see what it looks like in a week...

 

[enrico]

Poly you miss the point. you say unfertile queens can't lay eggs and in the next breath say they can lay drone eggs. Surely eggs is eggs!!!!

 

[psafloyd]

I had similar in a nuc hived with a caste swarm 4 weeks ago. Saw HM a few days later but not since. It was quite a small caste and still can not find her. Eggs on sides and multiple at base of cells - see picture. My assumption is laying workers.

This is what I saw in my one last week, but the eggs were on the base of th call.

 

[nickyjay]

Enrico, a fertilised (mated) queen can lay eggs that are either fertilised or non-fertilised. This allows her to chose between laying female workers/queens (fertilised) or drones (unfertilised). An unfertilised queen can only lay unfertilised eggs, I.e. Drones.
A drone is an exact genetic replica of the queen and therefore no fertilisation is required.

 

[Hombre]

I reported a similar situation a few weeks ago. Four or five eggs to a cell. The bees did not sort it out and the next week there were cells with twin grubs in that were three or four days old and the newly mated queen was still filling up cells with four or five eggs.

It looked very much to be a drone layer and I have little hope that the situation will improve meaningfully. I noticed that queen cells have been started, but decided to put a Qx underneath and will sort them out as per a drone laying queen at my convenience. I don't hold out much hope for a viable queen from this colony, but will use the bees as the basis of a new colony for another queen or bolstering others. The queen just has to be toast.

So much for the bees sorting out the multiple egg situation.

 

[SarahM]

Pretty new at all this myself, but yes I read only yesterday in the How To Gide by Gerold Fisher that unmated queens do lay but only drones, think is how people who breed queens ensure their queens have good traits, as they breed both queens and drones with good traits so when they mate they get more of the good and less of the bad.