The ongoing queenless saga

Started by MeadFarm, June 18, 2010, 09:00:23 PM

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MeadFarm

June 18, 2010, 09:00:23 PM
I have a hive that has been queenless for two weeks and I've been adding frames of eggs hoping that they'd make a new queen. I now have three queen cells! One capped, one with larve and one with an egg! All on the bottom of frames in the UPPER deep. I can't imagine that they'd swarm, they don't have a queen to leave behind and have plenty of space.
These bees balled the last queen a week after she was released from her cage (a requeening attempt). I'm not sure why, she seemed to be doing fine. Maybe when I opened the hive it just happened to be bad timing and they blamed the disturbance on her.
Never-the-less, I'm excited about the possibility of my first queen being born but I don't want her to fly away. Any thoughts as to the positioning of the queen cells? Seems like between the two boxes is the center of the hive so it must be superceedure...right?

asprince

#1
June 18, 2010, 09:09:51 PM
If they were in fact queenless and they are raising a queen from eggs that you supplied, I would call that an emergency queen cell. Any where in the brood area of the hive will be fine. She should be laying in about 28 days.

Congratulations,

Steve 
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resembalance to the first. - Ronald Reagan

bee-nuts

#2
June 19, 2010, 03:04:49 PM
On bottom of frame or on bottom bars.  Are you sure they did not swarm? 

You should not just release a queen but should leave her in the cage so they can get used to her smell.  If they have a virgin queen that has not started laying yet or laying workers they will just kill every queen you put in.
The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory

Thomas Jefferson

greenbtree

#3
June 20, 2010, 09:10:54 PM
I wouldn't worry about the position, sounds like you are on your way to a queen.  If it was on the bottom deep bottom frame then I would worry, but as it is, wait.

JC
"Rise again, rise again - though your heart it be broken, or life about to end.  No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend, like the Mary Ellen Carter rise again!"

Kathyp

#4
June 20, 2010, 11:02:31 PM
leave them where you found them.  do not worry about swarming now.  they should be happy to have a queen and stay.

she has to fly away to mate.  just hope she makes it back.   ;)
The people the people are the rightful masters of both congresses and courts not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.

Abraham  Lincoln
Speech in Kansas, December 1859

MeadFarm

#5
June 21, 2010, 02:02:24 PM
Me too! Though the swallows have stopped their feeding around the hives so I'm optimistic. I've heard that you should leave a hive alone when they are rearing a queen. Is there a time that is most critical? I don't want to mess this up!
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