odd situation

[Cuckmere couple]

a hive from a friend who gave up on beekeeping....i was requeening

left to be hopelessly Q- and then added eggs from a good queen

went in 7 days later and one side of the frame with eggs was completely empty (no eggs at all and there had been)

the other side had multiple queen cells but they were all stubby and some sunken/slightly deflated...left the two most promising but still relatively short almost like scrub cells

anyone seen something like this before?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

a hive from a friend who gave up on beekeeping....i was requeening

left to be hopelessly Q- and then added eggs from a good queen

went in 7 days later and one side of the frame with eggs was completely empty (no eggs at all and there had been)

the other side had multiple queen cells but they were all stubby and some sunken/slightly deflated...left the two most promising but still relatively short almost like scrub cells

anyone seen something like this before?

you need young larvae not eggs. Bees will usually clear out any eggs from a strange queen

 

[enrico]

Or do a 2.cm scrape back to foundation under a patch of eggs and that will be where the queen cells will be!

 

[Cuckmere couple]

yup...thanks both

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Or do a 2.cm scrape back to foundation under a patch of eggs and that will be where the queen cells will be!

not always - in fact, frequently not

 

[enrico]

not always - in fact, frequently not

Have you tried it?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Have you tried it?

frequently, 9 times out of 10 they draw cells somewhere else

 

[enrico]

Th

frequently, 9 times out of 10 they draw cells somewhere else

That's odd, 9 times out of 10 I get them in the scraped space.

 

[Cuckmere couple]

i was surprised that the q cells that were there seemed small and poor quality...quite a busy hive

 

[Murox]

i was surprised that the q cells that were there seemed small and poor quality...quite a busy hive

Age of bees ? pollen/forage availability? prevailing weather? any diseases/varroa?