Ok picking picking up mated queens tomorrow and when I was going in to cull the old girls, they had spotty brood, but they had begun back filling the center of brood and not moving it up to the edge and or super so moved them around for when the mated queen is released. Will they move the rest to open the brood nest when these queens start laying. Also had a queen cell hatch early, as I planned to remove the cells today to make sure finger cross they take
One of the ways that I can tell if there is a new virgin queen in the hive when I cannot find her is the bees will open up the brood chamber. So if the old queen was a dud, and you add a bees one they should open it up for her, make sure they have room to move the honey/nectar to. If you have a lot of bees and some drawn comb, add a frame in the middle of the brood chamber and it will give her a good start. Jim Altmiller
Thanks
Moved around and added 2 drawn supers to two of the five. The other 3 had space so will see. It was my fault they were 3 year old queens that had a decent pattern then blah. Well they did great at 2 was gonna see how 3 did. Adding some Purdue ankle biters to the mix