Hey folks! Hope everyone is off to a great spring. Hived a couple of packages last Thursday. That puts them in the hive for 11 days counting today. Checked on them today. Hive number 1 is doing great. Plenty of capped and open brood. Hive number 2 however, has not one egg in it yet. Noticed a couple of queen cups so started to think they were queenless, but i spotted her. She was walking around the frame like normal, but looked definitely smaller than the queen in hive 1 and the Queen that i have in an overwintered hive(which is exploding). Both packages came from the same supplier. What are your thoughts??? Should I be tracking down another Queen to pinch and replace the Queen in hive number 2 or give her some more time? Don't want this hive to lag, but don't want to jump the gun and replace a good queen either. As always, your advise is much appreciated!
Darren
Are the queen cups filled with royal jelly and eggs?
mvh edward :-P
No, no royal jelly and no eggs. Not one egg in the hive yet. They are on about 5 frames of drawn comb and five frames of foundation. Figure they are just building them to build them or beginning to consider supersede. Queen is marked so I was able to confirm that she is present, just small and not laying at this point.
She may not bee fully mated, She may not bee producing enough pheromones.
Are they feeding her? do they have fresh pollen, nectar flow?
She may just bee shy ,
mvh edward :-P
You could always stick a frame of eggs in from one of the other hives and see if the girls build a queen cell. They probably have a better idea than you if the queen is worth keeping or not. If not, the girls will use to eggs to make a supersedure cell.
That's a good idea Daxon. I might go that route, but then again, I'd rather re-queen with a mated queen rather than wait on them building another one. How long do you all normally give a new Queen to start laying before you consider replacing her? Being that the Queen from the other package is laying like crazy, this one is starting to get on my bad side.
Contact your supplier and see if they would be willing to ship you another queen. Start there.
...JP
Great advice JP! Shot my supplier an email and they are shipping me a new Queen tomorrow. I was amazed with the great customer service. Back in action! Thanks for your insight!!
Well, that's what I would have done if I had sold you those bees. I would want you to be satisfied & if you were not I would welcome a call to rectify the situation. I'm glad for you that you chose a reputable source to get your bees from. They are doing the right thing. Kudos to them!
...JP
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Do you have other hives?
If you have strong wintered hives and give a frame of emerging bees to a package, it gives a real burst to build up.
If you get a swarm and join it the package, if works fine too.
Thanks Finski! I will do that. I've got a couple of overwintered hives that are building up very fast. I think once I get this new Queen installed and laying, I will give them a frame or 2 of emerging brood to get the caught back up with everyone else. I've never had to re-Queen a hive before. When I recieve my new Queen, should I pintch the old one and wait a day to put the new Queen cage in or can I do it the same day. I believe I have heard that I should leave the cork covering the candy in place for a couple of days until the bees look like they are not trying to attack the Queen and THEN remove it to allow them at the candy. Anyone have any advice?
Thanks!
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Because the hive has no brood, it probably accept the queen very well.
Yes, pinch the old queen.
Then after 24 hours make sure that the queen is not in the cage any more and after 3 days there exist eggs.