Unite or not?

[leonotron]

Following on from finding queen cells last month I've split my original colony and put a queen cell in a second hive and another in a nuc. Both cells were sealed on the 20th of April. I checked on 12th of May and no signs on either queen and no eggs. The nuc appeared to have some some of emergency cell but it doesn't look great. More like a sealed play cup. On the 12th I added a test frame to the hive to see if they would make queen cells but they haven't. I gather from this that they have a queen and she just hasn't come into lay.
I've read that new queens sometimes don't start to lay until all the old brood has emerged. Will adding the test frame have delayed this again?
I would also like to unite the nuc with this colony as I only wish to expand to two colonies for space reasons. If there queen hadn't come into lay in the hive colony is there a good chance the same has probably happened in the nuc and uniting them yet isn't a good idea?

 

[enrico]

My advice is to be patient. Wait for eggs. Queen s can take time to be mated and then to lay. Is there any hurry?
E

 

[leonotron]

No hurry I guess. The nuc is on top of the new hive so not best place for when I need to do inspections.

 

[richardbees]

Leon, why not put the Nuc on the ground alongside?

It's quite usual for 4 weeks between Qcell hatching and seeing first eggs, I agree with enrico and you give them more time.

ime test frame of eggs is more or less an infallible test of the bees being Q-right....

 

[leonotron]

I originally put it on top of the hive and was worried about moving it in case they couldn't fin their way home.
As for adding the frame of brood. Will it delay the new queen starting to lay and should I put it back to original hive?

 

[richardbees]

They can find a new entrance moved up to 3ft per day - so maybe put it on a box for a day then down on the ground?

That frame will have no affect on the new Q laying - I suggest leaving alone for a week.

good luck, richard

 

[leonotron]

Thanks for the replies. I'll leave them both alone and check again in about ten days.

 

[AndyTh]

I originally put it on top of the hive and was worried about moving it in case they couldn't fin their way home.
As for adding the frame of brood. Will it delay the new queen starting to lay and should I put it back to original hive?

If your nuc has a virgin queen and needs to fly to get mated it is not a good idea to move the nuc's entrance as you risk losing the virgin queen on her next return from a mating flight. Just leave things as they are until you see eggs. You could work the bees below in the evenings after mating flights are done for the day. Good luck