Sugar Mix/ No queen added Brood??

[MustbeeNuts]

Well I have a two part question , the first one is the sugar syrup I made last week, made candy on the bottom of the lid, so no syrup could get out. of course it was a three day cold snap, but still its like an 1/16th thick. I broke it off and letting them eat it, I have a new mix ready for tommorow but figured candy or not to use it up. (cheap) but I wonder what did that, is it because I boiled it too long perhaps, or made it too thick, ????

Second question is ok I have a new package that has no queen, this im sure of its been two weeks and not a single egg. She either died or left. Today I grabbed a frame of brood, some capped and some larvae in it. I didn't really look for eggs, just a quick one for young larvae.

Question: How old can larvae be to be made into a queen. and second ,would there be eggs that I could have missed, ?? or larvae at the approx age for making a new queen. some looked smaller than others. and they have only been laying in that box for two weeks max.

[Kathyp]

http://www.bahamasembroidery.com/eh/honey.html

look at the 3rd picture down.  that's what you want to put in the hive if  you can't see the eggs.  chances are there are eggs on this frame also.

older larvae like this are to old.

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/the_honeybees_genome_could_be_its_savior/

as for the syrup, i don't boil.  hot tap water and good mixing are enough.  i don't know why yours got hard with water that hot.  boiling is a good guess.

[annette]

I just purchased a package of bees and installed them 13 days ago.  They are making brood like gangbusters..  You should have seen the brood very clearly by now.  I know the Sacramento Beekeeping store guarantees a laying queen or else they give me one. Can you contact the place where you purchased the package to get another queen????

[MustbeeNuts]

I just purchased a package of bees and installed them 13 days ago.  They are making brood like gangbusters..  You should have seen the brood very clearly by now.  I know the Sacramento Beekeeping store guarantees a laying queen or else they give me one. Can you contact the place where you purchased the package to get another queen????

I doubt it , came from a middleman. I don't mind tho, I do have queens coming in a couple weeks, if they last that long. I think they should or worse case I'll combine them with another hive.

If the brood is too ok , how long should they take to make a queen cell. is that an open ended question. Just approx will do.

[Michael Bush]

>Second question is ok I have a new package that has no queen, this im sure of its been two weeks and not a single egg. She either died or left.

Some take two weeks to start.  But if they were really queenless I would have expected the bees to move next door to a queenright hive.

>Today I grabbed a frame of brood, some capped and some larvae in it. I didn't really look for eggs, just a quick one for young larvae.

Odds are it will have eggs if it has young larvae.

>Question: How old can larvae be to be made into a queen.

A GOOD queen, it should have just hatched.

> and second ,would there be eggs that I could have missed, ??

Most likely.

> or larvae at the approx age for making a new queen. some looked smaller than others.

The right age are almost invisible.

> and they have only been laying in that box for two weeks max.

>If the brood is too ok , how long should they take to make a queen cell.

48 hours you should see a cell.  But if there are eggs they could start one as late as four days from now and still get a queen.  In four weeks you should have a laying queen.

[MustbeeNuts]

Well just like clock work there are two queen cups with larvae in them, sweet!!, I gotta admit I was a little worried I wouldn't get that hive right. But the frame of brood helped them out greatly, one of them queen cells should outta go. I saw larvae in each. itty bitty ones.
thanks Mike. and all.