I have a hive that has swarmed. The swarm cells are all open, but I did not find the queen or any eggs or larva. I have contacted a number of queen producers and they will not have any queens until april or may and some later than that. I could take frames of eggs/brood from my other hive but its has small cell frames, that may not matter much, and let the bees make a queen.
Thanks,
John
You'll most likely have a virgin queen in there, and virgins are hard to spot...
Give it a couple weeks, give the queen time to mate and lay.
Is better chances than robbing brood from a small building hive.
If your other hive is strong, but just small cell, then move a frame of eggs,
If there's a virgin they'll not build a cell, if there's not, then they'll build a cell.
Being small cell should not be an issue, they'll still build you a queen cell if they're queenless.
But, chances are good that there is a virgin in the hive.
Agree with Ray. They typically will not swarm and leave the hive absolutely queenless. There is probably a queen cell or newly hatched queen that you can't see. Give them about 10-14 days and check again. You will probably see eggs once this new queen has a chance to mature, mate, and begin laying.
Thanks for the advice. But what about workers beginning to lay eggs? I will check the hive this week when its in the 70s for eggs/queen.
if you have a virgin queen or queen cells, you won't have to worry about laying workers. if you put a frame of eggs in and they do not make queen cells, you can be pretty sure you have a queen in there....it's an easy way to tell what's going on.
I will do that tomorrow or as soon as weather permits. Then I'll check it a couple days after that.
Thanks again for all the help!