Our first queen of 2021- or maybe not......advice wanted

[BigAshW]

Kim checked one of our apideas this morning and found this beauty in there.

We're hoping the multiple eggs is just her getting settled down.

Happy with this. First time I've had success harvesting cells.

 

[Ian123]

Yes multiple eggs are common when they start or often in a small Nuc/cluster. Ian

 

[BigAshW]

Kim checked our mating nuc today.

Queen still there however no eggs or brood at all!



So has she failed? There were eggs in there on the 12th so should be seeing capped brood now.

Or is the fact that the weather has been so bad she's just stopped laying.

Problem is she's running out of bees now.

So I need to get her more or put her in a full nuc soon.

 

[Earthboy]

I wonder if the weather has been rather cool to cold. Have you tried to insulate/wrap up the hive for a while to keep them warmer than usual? Or add some capped brood with some attendant bees?

 

[Anduril]

How much fondant is in the mating nuc?

 

[BigAshW]

About half the feeder full.

 

[BigAshW]

I wonder if the weather has been rather cool to cold. Have you tried to insulate/wrap up the hive for a while to keep them warmer than usual? Or add some capped brood with some attendant bees?

Unfortunately I don't have capped brood on a mini nuc frame.

My plan was to leave her 21 days after I saw eggs then make up a full sized nuc with her.

I can make the nuc early, was just wondering if anyone had experience of this and knew if the queen was viable or not.

 

[Anduril]

I should have added how much space for laying eggs?

 

[Earthboy]

Assuming you have grafted the queen, she looks stalwart. You have done a good job. After sticking the queen cell to a nuc, here in the US, we leave them alone two to three weeks before checking her egg-laying.

 

[BigAshW]

I should have added how much space for laying eggs?

They've drawn the middle frame and made a start on the second frame.

 

[BigAshW]

Assuming you have grated the queen, she looks stalwart. You have done a good job. After sticking the queen cell to a nuc, here in the US, we leave them alone two to three weeks before checking her egg-laying.

Yes we made this nuc up in the end of April that's why we were checking on her.

 

[Anduril]

If there aren't enough bees in there and the cells are full of stores, then the queen will stop laying, also the brood might be chilled and the queen could be chilled due to lack of bees. I have found that when there aren't enough bees the queen will not lay.

 

[madasafish]

I have a mini nuc raised own Q in April, hopefully mated. Not started laying yet. Last capped brood emerged 2 weeks ago.

I assume it's too cold .(Kieler with insulated cover so no lack of insulation and full of bees.
Warmer weather in 7 days is forecast - will give her two weeks after that.

 

[Earthboy]

Leave her bee:

". . . not a controlled study but many years of personal observation and anecdotal evidence suggests to me that there is improved acceptance and reduced supercedure if the queen has spent 21 or more days in the mating nuc. This is from my own queens that are not shipped but transferred in a couple of hours to the new colony. I rarely buy queens, but due to my own error in the cell builder I did buy a batch a few years ago and instead of installing them directly into full sized colonies put them into the waiting breeding nucs for about two weeks. 100% were accepted and survived the season. I don't have good enough records to say how they did over their life span but clearly a higher rate of acceptance then is normal for me."

From Bee-L Archive

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