I am attempting to move all my bees into new hives and the frames for this hive don't fit in the new boxes. So I removed the top brood box and and put the new brood box on top of the lower brood box (After I checked there was no brood on the frames of the old top brood box) so that the bees could draw out the foundation on the frames of the new box for a few weeks. Last week I checked them and decided that they had drawen out enough comb that I could move the queen up and put an excluder so she could not go back down but the brood still at the bottom would have time to hatch out before I removed that box completely. I was very happy to find the queen easyly but I didn't want to squash her so I intended to scoop her up into a queen cage but as I was trying this she dropped off the comb - lucky I was working over the hive so I'm sure she fell back into the hive. I then decided to close up and give her a week before I try again.
So today I go into the hive and don't fine the queen - a fair amount to capped brood but no eggs or young lava! Could I have killed the queen when I dropped her? or what could of happened to her?
Here is a picture of to explain the setup better - the hive in the foreground is the one with the new hive body on top of the old hive:
(http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t596/Tracy_Spear/Photo0047_zps485d3a13.jpg) (http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/Tracy_Spear/media/Photo0047_zps485d3a13.jpg.html)
Will link to the video I took with my action cam - on a chest strap - of the inspection I did today as soon it is uploaded to youtube.
did you check under the excluder? they can, and do, go through those things.
I had not put the excluder on after loosing the queen because I wanted to move her up but dropped her in the process. I put the excluder on today but I don't think that will make any difference as if she is still there she will be in the bottom box still and I want her to move up...
could she have wandered into the top box? If you injured or killed her, surely the bees would have known and started on emergency queen cells. Now that you have the excluder on, give them 4 or 5 days then check for eggs and larvae. Hope for the best but prepare for the worse. Either start looking for a new queen or grab a frame of eggs from one of your other hives and put it into the bottom box of your new hive. If you get queen cells, cut some out a day or two before they emerge and attach them to frames in the top box.
By the time the queen mates and starts laying, the brood from the frame you put in should be emerging and you'll have plenty of nurse bees and should be able to remove the bottom box.
Here is the promised video of the hive inspection... excuse the banter between me and my mom... LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vBfcuvO4tI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vBfcuvO4tI)
The queen cell that was torn open may have answered your question.I think your hive may have swarmed and you have a virgin queen on the loose in your hive. If you are unsure,you can get a frame with some eggs from one of your other hives and add it. If they are queenless they will raise another,but I think your hive may have it's new queen.Give it a bit and check for eggs again.
PS I think it's awesome you and your Mom are sharing this experience,be sure to thank her!! :)
I really want to give them a frame or 2 of eggs from my other hives but there is a small problem that is not apparent on the vid or the pic. The frames in the lower box are very much smaller than the frames in any of my other hives. That is why we are trying to move them into the new hive in such a strange way.
We moved a few of our other bees into their new hives yesterday but had to leave 2 in their old hives because there is brood in both boxes. We put queen excluders on and are going to wait 2 weeks then check where the queen is laying. One of the hives that we put the excluder on really dosen't seem to like the excluder at all and many of the bees are refusing to go into the hive now. Before leaving them today I brushed as many of the bees that were hanging round the entrance as I could into a dust pan and tipped them into the top of the hive that I had opened ( got a sting on my leg through my jeans in the process) then closed them up. hopefully they will stay in tonight.
All our hives have lots of drones in them but the worker brood patten is also very good.
Today we moved the last colony and sadly it is queenless :-( . I gave them 2 frames (each from a diferent hive) of brood - I think one had eggs on (was hard to say for sure but there was very young lava for sure - and one of the frames I just checked that the queen was not on it and gave the bees to the queenless hive.
I love beekeeping and am learning so much! :-D