Any one have a Queen for sale?

[farmerjohn]

I have a hive that has swarmed.  The swarm cells are all open, but I did not find the queen or any eggs or larva.  I have contacted a number of queen producers and they will not have any queens until april or may and some later than that.  I could take frames of eggs/brood from my other hive but its has small cell frames, that may not matter much, and let the bees make a queen.

Thanks,

John

[RayMarler]

You'll most likely have a virgin queen in there, and virgins are hard to spot...

Give it a couple weeks, give the queen time to mate and lay.

Is better chances than robbing brood from a small building hive.
If your other hive is strong, but just small cell, then move a frame of eggs,
If there's a virgin they'll not build a cell, if there's not, then they'll build a cell.
Being small cell should not be an issue, they'll still build you a queen cell if they're queenless.
But, chances are good that there is a virgin in the hive.

[Two Bees]

Agree with Ray.  They typically will not swarm and leave the hive absolutely queenless.  There is probably a queen cell or newly hatched queen that you can't see.  Give them about 10-14 days and check again.  You will probably see eggs once this new queen has a chance to mature, mate, and begin laying.

[farmerjohn]

Thanks for the advice.  But what about workers beginning to lay eggs?   I will check the hive this week when its in the 70s for eggs/queen.

[Kathyp]

if you have a virgin queen or queen cells, you won't have to worry about laying workers.  if you put a frame of eggs in and they do not make queen cells, you can be pretty sure you have a queen in there....it's an easy way to tell what's going on.

[farmerjohn]

I will do that tomorrow or as soon as weather permits.  Then I'll check it a couple days after that.

Thanks again for all the help!