no Queen???

[big]

hi.

im a new beekeeper just recently accuired my first colony after months of tuition. My nuc had a new (small) and fast moveing queen when first installed 3 weeks ago. since then all the brood has hatched. there seems to be no eggs or larvea or indeed capped brood. in three inspections have not been able to find the queen since i saw her when i gently put her in.

i have been offered another nuc from a different source. should i combine the 2 ??

ta

bigbee

 

[jon]

i have been offered another nuc from a different source. should i combine the 2 ??

Only if you are 100% sure there is no queen in the first nuc. Are you sure there is not an unmated virgin queen in there? It was obviously an unmated queen when you got it or you would have seen brood right away. It may have started to orientate at its previous site and then got lost when the nuc was moved before it had mated.

in three inspections have not been able to find the queen since i saw her when i gently put her in.

I don't understand this bit. Were you given bees and brood and then made up a nuc with a queen from somewhere?

 

[big]

hi.

i got the nuc complete - queen , brood etc. i am of the opinion that it was an umated queen also...... am pretty sure she is not there.

 

[jon]

How far away was the nuc from its present site when you got it?
If it was any less than about 5 miles and the queen had already started to orientate she probably went back to the original site or got lost at this one.

 

[Poly Hive]

You definatley need to use a test frame on this colony before thinking of buying in a queen.

Better safe than sorry.

PH