Queen Dilemma

[TonyPayne]

About a month ago my bees swarmed. last week I inspected to see if there was a new queen doing her stuff yet, but found no queen brood or eggs. I added a frame of eggs & brood to see if they would start some queen cells and they have. There is a single queen cell so far which is about half complete. The problem is that I also found the queen this time!There is still no eggs or brood yet, so what should I do?

Do I have time to leave it for another week and see if the queen starts laying? If I find eggs next week, should I just let nature take its course?

I am slightly concerned that the queen might be barren but would go around killing any potential heirs.

Thanks,

 

[Erichalfbee]

About a month ago my bees swarmed. last week I inspected to see if there was a new queen doing her stuff yet, but found no queen brood or eggs. I added a frame of eggs & brood to see if they would start some queen cells and they have. There is a single queen cell so far which is about half complete. The problem is that I also found the queen this time!There is still no eggs or brood yet, so what should I do?

Do I have time to leave it for another week and see if the queen starts laying? If I find eggs next week, should I just let nature take its course?

I am slightly concerned that the queen might be barren but would go around killing any potential heirs.

Thanks,

Well you have two choices. Take her out and let them try again or take any queen cells out. Has she been mated do you think? What I mean is have you had good weather and is she fat? If it were my colony I would give her more time.

 

[TonyPayne]

The weather has been good, but she does seem a tad thinner than the one in the other, healthy hive (or is it my imagination). I might leave it until next weekend. If I do remove her then, can I put her with a couple of frames in a nucleus, just to see what happens?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Only if you can spare the brood frames and nurse bees

 

[Eyeman]

About a month ago my bees swarmed. last week I inspected to see if there was a new queen doing her stuff yet, but found no queen brood or eggs. I added a frame of eggs & brood to see if they would start some queen cells and they have. There is a single queen cell so far which is about half complete. The problem is that I also found the queen this time!There is still no eggs or brood yet, so what should I do?

Do I have time to leave it for another week and see if the queen starts laying? If I find eggs next week, should I just let nature take its course?

I am slightly concerned that the queen might be barren but would go around killing any potential heirs.

Thanks,

Not seen that before.
Even a virgin in the hive should suppress QC's on a test frame.
You sure it is a QC?
Is the colony very weak? You usually get more than one QC on a test frame in any half decent colony

 

[TonyPayne]

Eyeman,

It certainly looks like a queen cell to me. I'll leave it for a week and take another look then. The colony is definitely smaller than the other two I have, judging by the bees that amass around the entrance during the day. I'm also guessing it has been the victim of a swarm and at least one cast swarm.

 

[mjt68]

There's a queen but the bees don't like her and are taking first chance to replace her?