Spare Queen Anyone?

[Cherry111]

I've recently treated my colonies with MAQS and possibly due to this process, managed to make one of them queenless. I have an uncapped queen cell but I'm not sure at this late stage whether it will produce a viable queen. Would there be anyone out there with a SPARE QUEEN, possibly after uniting etc, please? I'd be most grateful if someone can help me out. Many thanks.

 

[Erichalfbee]

You might be lucky. The weather is good this week and I still have the odd drone even in wet Wales. Have you spotted her?

 

[Cherry111]

I have an experienced friend who came to help check my hives. Saw queens in the other three hives but not this one. There has not been any uncapped brood since the MAQS treatment although there were five queen cells,one of which was capped. We chose one uncapped cell and destroyed the others. They weren't emergency cells though. Perhaps it was coincidence that they were treated because they did look a bit like swarm cells. Otherwise, the colony was fit and well, ready for winter.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Nevertheless, put in a test frame for a few days. You can always return it to the donor hive. Virgin queens are hard to spot.

 

[Cherry111]

Ah, you are thinking a queen may have already hatched? Supercedure? I'll try the frame of eggs and see what happens. Thanks for your advice.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Oops missed that you'd left only the one uncapped. I'd still do that test frame. If you can't get a queen you could unite them.

 

[Cherry111]

I'm sorry, I dont understand. I thought you were supposed to leave just the one queen cell, preferably uncapped so you could see it was ok.

 

[RogueDrone]

Cherry,
I think Erica miss read the original post and assumed your queen had emerged from the uncapped cell. If the cell is open with grub inside the you still have a week at least before she will emerge so will miss this good weather. I would still go with the option of putting in a frame of eggs / young brood as this will delay the onset of laying workers and give you more time to acquire your queen. If you fail in that quest I would split the colony and unit with your other three colonies to increase their numbers appropriately going into winter.

Colin

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I'm sorry, I dont understand. I thought you were supposed to leave just the one queen cell, preferably uncapped so you could see it was ok.

You're right
Timescales are important. What day did you see the uncapped queencell?

 

[Finman]

.
I have 5 extra queens.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes. Rogue drone has it. I did misread. Sorry