I just gave a frame of eggs to a possible queenless hive. If the hive is queenless, how soon would they start building emergency queen cells? I was wondering if they would start right away or wait for the eggs to start hatching.
As soon as the eggs hatch at 3 to 4 days unless you have a laying worker.
Did you do anything such as tear down the walls of a few cells to encourage them?
Ed
Two of the brood frames had about 1/3 cut out of the middle (wonky comb). The bees did nothing to start fixing them. All they've done was move honey up and bring in pollen and nectar.
I pulled one of the cut frames and replaced it with a partly drawn frame full of eggs. I'll be checking Monday for queen cells. If no queen cells by then, I'll take a closer look at the rest of the frames.
If there is any larva less than 6 days old (from being laid) they may start right away floating the larva out to where they can start building a vertical cell. How old/dark is the wax? The newer the wax the easier it is for the bees to make the queen cells.
Jim
It's brand new wax. The bees in the other hive just started drawing out that frame and it looked like the queen was laying as they worked.
In that case they can make queen cells any where they want to.
Jim