i boxed a feral colony and i don't think i got the queen. 7 days later i opened the hive and saw queen cells already capped! could the feral colony have taken egg/lava from my established hives and put them into queen cells?
any ideas?
Last year when I got my feral hive we thought there were no eggs, there was almost no brood, and the way the bees were acting we thought we had the queen. A week later I was in the same spot, emergency cells. The queen that came into being (brood was a little hot) was later superceded after population build up last fall. Her daughter is laying excellent and they are working their wings off and extremely mild (even in a drought).
Point is even though more experienced beeks looked for them no eggs were found and I've got hive. :D I've heard of them moving eggs within the hive, but I don't think they would be allowed into another hive to steal eggs.
But I've only been doing this a year and submit to those much wiser than I.
Good Luck!
David
If you found queen cells in the hive there were eggs even if you didn't see them. At this point in the year I'd let them raise their own queen and concentrate on nursing them into condition for wintering.
Many swarms will quickly supercede the swarm queen. After all, if she is the original queen, she may be a few years old and starting to fail. These supercedure queens are often excellent bees. Good luck & please keep us informed!