being cheap and knowing that i have diverse genetics in the area, i never buy queens. this year i have two hives that went queenless over the winter (besides the laying worker hive, now gone). one is now ok. the other, i caught about a week later. they immediately built several nice looking queen cells from the frame of larvae i gave them. yesterday was day 17 and they cells are still intact. in case they not good cells, i gave this hive another frame of eggs and larvae.
my question is: can weather and cooler nights cause delay in the opening of those cells or do they just do their thing no matter what? never had this happen before.......
Cant wait for the answer. Want to know this also
Yes, temp can increase or decrease development time in any cold blooded young.
A queen can emerge in 14 to 18 days. Please don't ask for references, as I just remember reading about it. Probably before half the forum members were old enough to read. :shock: :-D
I've been into hives that were actively keeping 4 queens trapped in their cells. I guess they were checking each queen out when it came hatching time to pick the very best one. Saw one bee feeding the queen in the cell as another worker repaired the cell to keep the queen imprisoned. My inspecting the hive disrupted the imprisonments and I suddenly had pipping coming out all over. I quickly brood the hive down into 5 hives. 4 for the queens kept trapped and one for the remaining unhatched queen cell. They all did well.
>can weather and cooler nights cause delay in the opening of those cells or do they just do their thing no matter what? never had this happen before.......
Yes, it can delay them up to two or three days and hot weather can shorten the time by up to two days.