nubee needs HELP (about queen)

[prana vallabha]

i will tell you the senario- the queen hatched on the 10th july , i checked yesterday and found a few eggs here and there were not many and sporadically laid and found 6 queen cups 4 with eggs in , 3 were charged with royal jelly . I dont know what to do please help this is my first year my other hive is doing fine......

 

[Poly Hive]

They are obviously not happy with the queen.

If you have grubs (as discussed at great length elsewhere) in queen cups they are now meaningful.

If the colony is strong enough then buying in a queen is justified, and if not then unite to something stronger.

This is all a consequence of the poor weather by the way.

PH

 

[Tom Bick]

Hi Prana is this the same hive that you had a thread on yesterday and you were worried over the virgin queen? if so it may have helped to keep this thread as part of that one. Just a thought but it gives a better history of the hive.

If it is the same hive then you now know you have a laying queen and options available to you. Your bees dont seem happy with the queen but if it was me I would gamble and remove these charged queen cups to see if things settle down if they return next week then you can decide what to do. There is a danger that she is failing fast and you have no eggs but then again she may be a slow to get going and the bees are in a rush.

You still have time to combine or get a queen introduced, the eggs that the queen is laying now provided she is a mated queen will contribute to the hive.

 

[prana vallabha]

yes this is the same hive as other thread ( i will get used to this ). thanks for advice

 

[BeeNice]

I see you only have the one hive, I would go with PH on this and if you have a strong hive, buy in a queen to get her in and laying your over wintering bees.
If you do buy a queen in, she will come in the post with a few nurse bees, and instructions on how to introduce her. Make should you get rid of all queen cells and play cups before putting her in.
Good luck with it. Steven

 

[prana vallabha]

any tips on how to find the old queen ?

before i introduce a new mated queen

 

[Elaine]

any tips on how to find the old queen ?

before i introduce a new mated queen

Pretend you are not looking for her

Seriously - I find that if I am inspecting as usual, just looking for eggs/larvae and anything unusual, I am more likely to see her than if I am specifically searching for her! And that goes for marked or un-marked!

 

[Davelin]

I see you only have the one hive, I would go with PH on this and if you have a strong hive, buy in a queen to get her in and laying your over wintering bees.

Despite saying only 1 hive on status, reading through it appears there are now two. This one is from as A/S I assume. I would suggest you do as Tom says and pull down the Queen cells and see if she settles down. If they do throw her out or she is totally useless then you can re-combine with original hive and you have lost nothing.

 

[BeeNice]

If you have another hive then combine, looking for a queen, when you do your inspection take out the last frame, and gentle put it over the other frames flat, this keeps the bees quite and down. Inspect the frames as per usual and retain the gap as you move the frames after inspection. The queen will not cross the gap but try and remain in the dark. Look all around the edge of the frame first and work your way to the centre. If you still can't find her take out another frame (not brood) so you have frames in 3's. Leave alone for awhile and inspect the frames that are in 3's. She may be in the centre of one of the blocks. To move bees away on inspection gentle blow on them and they then move. Hope this helps.
Steven