We have three hives. One of which is in its second year and the other two were started this Spring. The older hive is doing great, healthy, and producing lots of honey. It's the third hive, the one we started from a split and added a Queen to 6 weeks ago that I'm concerned about. No sign of Queen, no brood, no new drawn comb, they are storing some honey. Has been in this state for two or three weeks. There was a time where they were making Queen cells, but not any longer.
So, today, we took two frames from the top brood chamber of the healthy hive that were full of brood and honey, shook off the bees, and transfered them to the center of the struggling hive. We then placed the two empty frames back into the healthy hive.
Should I feed 1:1 sugar?
When should I check the hive to see if they are making Queen cells...two weeks?
If this fails to raise a Queen, should I order a Queen or will it be too late in the season?
Thanks in advance for the help!!
It's possible that they raised a queen, and she is just now mating. Keep an eye on the new frames you added to see if they try to raise a new queen. If not, you've got one in there somewhere.
Quote from: DrKurtG on July 02, 2008, 07:43:26 PM
When should I check the hive to see if they are making Queen cells...two weeks?
You should check the hive in 3 or 4 days to see if there are queen cells. The new frames you added should be good for making queen cells for up to about 6 days. If no queen cells in that time, I'm betting you have a queen in there somewhere.
My new hive this year did the exact same thing. When I finally got around to putting a frame of eggs and brood from a friend's hive, I found that the queen that was "hiding" in there had really gotten to work all of a sudden and I had eggs and larvae everywhere.
Good luck.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm
Thank you Mr. Bush!
Yesterday, Sunday - July 6th, we saw a few new Queen cells. One of them was opened and we saw an egg vertically placed inside. So, according to your info, it is between 1 - 3 days old. If I am reading your info correctly, we should expect a laying Queen, assuming she is successfully mated, in about 4 weeks...give or take a few days. Yes?
This concerns me a bit because that puts us into August and the hive may not have enough time to get set for winter.
you can over-winter a small hive if you restrict their space. they may end up over-wintering in one deep, or the equivalent, but that does not doom them. if your queen has lots of room to lay in august, she can accomplish quite a bit. when you get into fall, shake them down and reduce the size of the hive. save the extra drawn/honey frames for next year or winter feeding.
you could add some sealed brood from your other hives to keep that one going until the queen mates and starts laying, etc. if you've had some of the rain thats been through here the last few days it should help with available nectar. you are right though...the math puts you well into august before you see new brood.
Hi Randy - Yeah, I have two frames of brood and honey already in there sorta waiting for her. I am having trouble fighting the urge to run out to the hives every day, pop the top, and see what the status of the Queen cells are! But, I'm going to wait until next Sunday for my weekly inspections.
Thank you Kathyp, that makes me far less worried. :-D