Queenless Cut-Out?

[cdray]

Hello folks. Brand new beekeeper here with some questions. I did my first cut out, three weeks ago today. I vacuumed a ton of bees and never found the queen. I believe the bees were ready to swarm because there were 3-4 capped queen cells and lots of drone brood. We put a capped queen cell into the cutout hive.  The bees seem pretty content but I still cannot find any evidence of a queen, (the queen cell has hatched). This past Friday, I put a frame with eggs and brood, from another hive, into the possible queenless hive. Today I have several queen cells, including two that are capped. So now for the question. Are they indeed queenless or is the queen just immature and they don't recognize her? I need to hear from some experienced folks. Thanks in advance! David, Camden, Alabama.

[Robo]

If it has been 3 weeks since you had a capped queen cell, I would put my money on not having a queen.

[cdray]

Thanks for the reply, Robo. I used your wonderful Bee-Vac on the cutout!

[Robo]

Glad it worked well for you.

I would leave the queen cells they have created and see what happens.   When doing cut outs in the middle of swarm season,  it is not uncommon to end up in a queenless situation.   Especially if they just swarmed and there is a virgin running around.   They are good at hiding, so it is easy to miss getting them.  I've been there myself.

Good Luck....

[cdray]

Okay, I made a mistake. It has only been two weeks since the cutout, not three. My apologies. Would they still make queen cells if there were a virgin queen in the hive?

[iddee]

If they have capped queen cells now, leave it alone for 2 weeks and then check again.Report back then and go from there. Disturbing them now and for the next 2 weeks may be very detrimental.

[cdray]

Thanks guys!