Queenless?

[daj198]

My hive swarmed last Saturday (but I managed to catch the swarm! Now in another hive...). There were a couple of hatched queen cells in the old hive when I removed all of the queen cells except two sealed ones. The queen in the new hive is now laying but I can't see any eggs or larvae in the old hive, just capped brood. They are also quite agitated. Do you think it's queenless?

 

[Queens59]

Accordng to the books, it sounds like they are. The Queen is with the swarm, and the old hive is waiting for a virgin to hatch out and start laying which will take a while. They will be in an awful mood until it is sorted.

 

[daj198]

Don't they need larvae in order to raise a new queen though?

 

[BKF Admin]

Did you have a clipped queen in the old hive?

 

[daj198]

No, she wasn't clipped. Also- I forgot to say that it looks like they (old hive) have torn down the queen cells that I left.

 

[Midland Beek]

My hive swarmed last Saturday. The queen in the new hive is now laying but I can't see any eggs or larvae in the old hive, just capped brood. They are also quite agitated. Do you think it's queenless?

Although your bees swarmed last Saturday, a new virgin queen may not have emerged in your old hive until perhaps a full 6 days later, ie. this Friday just gone. What book have you read that has told you that a new queen can emerge and mate and then start laying eggs in 24hrs?