Suspecting laying workers :(

[BigAshW]

Ok so I finally managed to get to the swarm that landed in my mentors spare kit last week. He put it into a nuc box 8 days ago and we took it to my apiary.

Today was the first opportunity I've had to get there and on looking at the front of the hive everything looked promising with pollen and nectar flowing in. However when I looked inside I found no brood. 1 queencell on the face of a comb with 6 eggs in. And more cells with multiple eggs in normally five or six.

I haven't managed to get hold of my mentor yet but I thought I'd put it up here. I'm thinking laying workers, but is it the end of the colony??? If I can get a queen in there the laying workers will reject her wouldn't they??

 

[enrico]

Is this your only hive? If not then frame of eggs from your other one.
I am surprised they have built and laid in a queen cell already! Are you sure this isn't an old queen cell that was already on your mentors frames! Just sounds.....well.....odd to me!
E

 

[Heather]

yes, sounds v doubtful re a queen cell so quickly.
No brood/larvae ..so maybe bit early if a new queen present. Maybe was a large cast with virgin queen. Multiple eggs.... could just be exuberant new queen not yet settled to one egg per cell.
Wait a few more days. Allow them to settle., as 8 days still a new colony.

 

[BigAshW]

They are my only colony guys I put them into the brood box I was planning on using along with some foundation and a feeder.

The Queencell could well have been an old one as it was on old comb.

Bees weren't particularly bad tempered and didn't follow at all.

This is some of the brace comb I pulled out of the Nuc box.

 

[Davelin]

The eggs all look to be in the bottom of the cells which suggest you have a young queen who hasn't quite got the hang of it yet.

If you had laying workers the eggs may not be so far down in the cells, I would leave them for a bit and see what happens.

 

[sharonh]

The eggs all look to be in the bottom of the cells which suggest you have a young queen who hasn't quite got the hang of it yet.

If you had laying workers the eggs may not be so far down in the cells, I would leave them for a bit and see what happens.

Agree.
Leave a bit longer to see.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Laying workers.

 

[beeno]

Exactly how long ago did the swarm arrive in your mentors spare kit? If it is laying workers then they don't tend to become active in 8 days and bees don't tend to swarm without a queen unless it is starvation swarming. Isn't it unusual for a newly mated queen to lay that many eggs per cell? Have they drawn any comb other than that shown?

 

[Heather]

And some of the eggs are dead centre at base.. I would wait a little longer. Get that mentor to look again for any queen present before drastic action taken.

 

[BigAshW]

Exactly how long ago did the swarm arrive in your mentors spare kit? If it is laying workers then they don't tend to become active in 8 days and bees don't tend to swarm without a queen unless it is starvation swarming. Isn't it unusual for a newly mated queen to lay that many eggs per cell? Have they drawn any comb other than that shown?

Swarm arrived 11 days ago today. They were then put into a nuc box 10 days ago and transported to my site 9 days ago. They where on 4 frames in the nuc and so only had room to draw the brace comb shown, 3 pieces in all, all of it full of eggs.

I went down yesterday and moved them into a BB with a feeder and 1:1 syrup. My mentor has said it could be either laying workers or hyperactive queen so has said to leave to settle for a while and we will make a decision at the end of the week depending on what the state of play is inside the hive.

 

[beeno]

Hi BigAshW,
Well, you are doing all you can. Can't wait to see what happens! Learning from other beeks experiences that's what the forum is all about.

 

[BigAshW]

Well I took advantage of a sunny afternoon to check on this hive and sadly the bees are down to 2 frames.

They had taken all the syrup down and drawn a frame of foundation but all the cells on the frames had multiple eggs in. Some eggs had hatched and there are 2 - 5 larvae to a cell.

So I'm pretty convinced they are Q- with laying workers. So my mentor is going to go through his colonies to see if we can find one strong enough to make a nuc from and I shall start again.

 

[Michael Palmer]

1 queencell on the face of a comb with 6 eggs in.

Yes, laying workers…especially with a queen cup with multiple eggs. To me, that's the clincher.