I have two hives at my house that are queenless. On one of the hives I added a frame of brood and eggs on April 5, about a month ago. I saw a good queen cell in it, but just to be sure, about 10 days ago I added another frame of brood and eggs. Yesterday (May3) there was no new brood in the hive, but they had simply capped the frame I put in 10 days ago and didn't use any of the eggs to make an emergency queen cell.
In the second hive, a hive rescued after being abandoned by another beekeeper four years ago, I think the queen was killed in the move. I added a frame of brood and eggs on April 11 to that hive. Yesterday I checked the frame I added and there were five opened queen cells on that frame, but again no new eggs or brood anywhere in the hive.
I realize that I probably won't know for sure if I have a good queen in either hive for at least another week. However we are in the middle of the nectar flow in Atlanta (it only lasts another 3 weeks) so to be sure I ordered two queens that I can pick up on Saturday. If I put these queens in these two hives and there is a queen who just didn't start laying yet, what kind of mayhem can I expect?
If I see brood or eggs before I put the new queens in the hive, I suppose I could make a split and keep an unneeded queen in a nuc as insurance???
Linda T always needing advice in Atlanta
Sound like a plan Linda. Best of luck.
You may want to also purchase a queenless package to boost the nuc, if that's what winds up happening or you can add them to one or both of the two queenless hives.
...JP
Hi Linda
Just a couple of weeks ago, I introduced a queen into a supposedly queenless hive. She was in a cage with 5 attendants and a sugar plug. After a week I went back in to check if they released her and found her and the attendants still alive in the cage and not much interest being showed to them from the rest of the hive. I was really confused, but I did an inspection and found a beautiful fat queen walking around.
I was able to return the queen and get my money back from the store.
Now this may not always happen. I was lucky this time. A couple of years ago, I did the same thing and the queen was found dead in the cage.(they were a laying worker hive)
So I hope you are introducing the queen in a cage and not directly into the hive.
Take care
Annette
Definitely the queen will be in a cage - after JP's comment I am wondering where I could get a queenless package to purchase. This guy doesn't sell bees - just queens. And I suppose I could check on Friday and if there's a queen evident in one of the hives, cancel the order. I know he has many people in line for his queens.
Maybe I could get a queenless package from Don K (aka fatbeeman) in Lula - he has fantastic bees.
Linda T in Atlanta