Walk away split

[London-Scottish]

Hi All,

Just looking for advice on a walkaway split i carried out 4weeks ago.
Queen emerged last weekend 17th May as hoped Although i did not see her.
I carried out a further inspection 1x wk later 24th hoping to see eggs and all cooking nicely.

So, i did not see any eggs but i did see the Queen. So i'm assuming she's not ready or perhaps not yet mated?? (I should add, we've had pretty good weather in London temps a little on the low side but plenty of sunshine.)

So my question being two fold:

> Firstly how much longer should i safely expect to wait before i'm lucky enough to see eggs?

> But more importantly, there's now no brood at all in the nuc. Should i top up from donor hive to ensure enough nurse bees, general housekeepers around for when she starts laying??

Many thanks in advance

 

[Arfermo]

Give her another 10 days and yes, give them a frame of BIAS, especially eggs.

 

[beeno]

Hi London-Scottish,
From emergence 10 days minimum before you can expect to see eggs, so you are a bit eager. I would give a small frame of emerging brood not eggs with adhering nurse bees (shaken lightly to make foragers fly off) and spray existing nuc and frame with sugar water to prevent any fighting. Good luck with the mating.

 

[jonnybeegood]

Im only in my second year, i had a queen last year that took 6 weeks to start laying. I wouldnt do anything yet, surely adding eggs or young brood could make her swarm as they may make q cells? Your bees will still revert to nurse the young. Think what would happen in the wildwith a virgin queen swarm, there would be noone to add nurse bees then.

 

[Cussword]

Im only in my second year, i had a queen last year that took 6 weeks to start laying. I wouldnt do anything yet, surely adding eggs or young brood could make her swarm as they may make q cells? Your bees will still revert to nurse the young. Think what would happen in the wildwith a virgin queen swarm, there would be noone to add nurse bees then.

I don't think that adding brood would make the virgin queen swarm.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

surely adding eggs or young brood could make her swarm as they may make q cells?

Why? if they are Q+ (virgin or mated) they'll just carry on nursing the brood, boosting the colony and sometimes works as a catalyst to get the new queen laying.
If they do build QC's - at least then you know that the virgin queen has probably become an on the wing snack for a swift or swallow and they are Q-

 

[London-Scottish]

Thanks all, will keep a close eye on next inspection with a view to adding BIAS.

I get the 'what would they do in the wild' point of view, and honestly would rather adopt this approach. Given their limited life cycle though, just wondering if they needed a hand to ensure strong start.

 

[oliver90owner]

Walk away split on the 29 April? I would expect a queen to have emerged much earlier than the 17th, perhaps only 11 or 12 days later than the split, at the outside.

Don't know what your whether has been like, but not a lot of mating going on around here. Sun is immaterial, temperature is more important, particularly in the mid afternoon.

You may be lucky and she will get mated properly, but not certain this year.

As for laying, one of the posters above used to insist that there would be capped brood less than 3 weeks after the queen cell was capped. Clearly not the case, so don't take too much as gospel from that poster!

She will lay, of course, mated or not but the longer it takes the more likely she will be a drone layer. Should not be in that situation yet, but .....

Last comment is that I hope your queen was not developed from a three day old larva. Bad enough doing walk away splits, but even less favoured when it is a nuc. More possibility of a scrubby queen which might just pass easily through a queen excluder.

But your choice, as always.