Ok, I requeened a huge that was not doing well. They were queue less fir 24 hours and it took them 72 hours to release the new queen. I looked at them today (3 days later) and all the empty cells in the brood chamber are full of syrup/nectar. Should I worry? I don't think they are leaving the new queen much room to lay in and this hive will continue to dwindle and fail through no fault of the new queen.
yes, you need to make sure the queen has room. they will either dwindle or swarm on you. move the nectar frames toward the outside and replace with empty (drawn if you have them) frames in the center. you didn't say how many boxes you have on this hive? how many frames? etc. those facts make a difference in how you manipulate things...but regardless, you need to make room for the queen to lay.
Sorry Kathy
This is a very small mic that barely made it through the winter. So they are 4 medium frames of bees. There is another medium box of drawn comb on top of them. I was feeding them syrup but took it off today because of the back filling.
how did you put a medium box on top of a nuc?
if all your frames are the same size i think this is what i would do: put all the frames in one box. put the brood in the middle, empty frames on either side of the brood, nectar frames on either side of the empty comb. let them build up before you add a box and keep an eye on them to make sure they don't bring in so much that they back fill again. they can build up quickly in spring but only if the queen has room to lay and there are enough bees to cover the brood. she'll only lay what they can care for.
They overwintered as a Nuc and have been moved to an 8 fame box.
yes ma'am all my frames are the same size, thats why I went will all mediums. I will open them back up today and mix some frames around to give her room to lay in. Thanks for the help
Jason
just watch them. 8 frames is not much room so you'll want to add a box before you have a large hatching out. if you get 3 or 4 frames of brood going or if they insist on backfilling the room you give them, you'll want to add another box. add the box under the first one, not on top.