Split a hive having given them 2 good frames of eggs. They made only 1 queen cell that they are paying a lot of attention to.
The only problem is the queen cell is really puny. It is already capped, but I was wondering if a puny queen cell can produce a good queen?? This queen cell is only 5 days old. Do they get bigger from here on in??
What do you all think?
Thanks Annette
Give her a try. Some small queens make good hives.
Annette,
I tried to start my observation give with fresh eggs after I used the previous one for a split. The comb was old and there was not much space in the on hive. They made 5 small q cells spread over the hive. Slowly but surely they removed the cells. The last one looked like it hatched. We looked for over a week for her knowing she probably looked like the other bees. Never did find her I ended up taking a new queen from a secondary swarm. Got to watch her start laying from day one. She was laying double eggs the first couple of days. Good luck with yours.
Jim
They made a queen from the best cell they had. If she's no good the bees will likely supersede her with a few right sized queen cells. Or, if she's not very good pinch her after you have several frames of eggs. Then the bees will have more to work with. That's how it works in my Queen Castles. The initial emergency queen is pinched or superseded for a properly formed one.
Or just buy a queen
Quote from: annette on May 06, 2012, 10:53:05 PM
Split a hive having given them 2 good frames of eggs. They made only 1 queen cell that they are paying a lot of attention to.
The only problem is the queen cell is really puny. It is already capped, but I was wondering if a puny queen cell can produce a good queen?? This queen cell is only 5 days old. Do they get bigger from here on in??
What do you all think?
Thanks Annette
Only one queen cell? I would give them another frame with eggs just in case the one and only winds up being a dud.
...JP
I have a hive like that. The first split I made, and I didn't know what a real queen cell looked like. :-D They never have replaced her so far. The hive has always been so, so. So now I have a question too. How do you find one of these puny queens?! I want to replace this queen, I have some coming, but I have trouble finding queens when they are big. I have seen this queen exactly twice, she really blends in. The only way I have seen her at all is when the workers point her out for me. Wouldn't she slip right through an excluder (I generally don't use them). Any suggestions?
JC