Missing queens

tefer2 · September 23, 2011, 10:51:39 PM

I made up 2 story nucs in July to overwinter this winter.
I placed grafted queen cells in all nucs and everyone seemed to build up fine except for one.
Every time the queen emerges she goes missing before she starts laying.
This happened four times with same results each time. I see her walking around and then... gone !
I have shook them out twice and started over with a new cell each time.

I find this strange that she could be eaten four times in a roll. It is the last nuc in that roll if that means anything.
Is there a safe way to combine them with a queen right hive ?
Maybe should just stop all this and dump them for good. Opinions anyone?

iddee · September 23, 2011, 11:08:35 PM

Shake them out on the ground. They will find a home.

Michael Bush · September 24, 2011, 02:08:28 AM

Every time a queen emerges it usually takes from two to three weeks for her to start to lay. Meanwhile she is fast and shy and hard, if not impossible to find. She won't move or look like a queen until she is laying and that won't be for two or three more weeks after she emerges. My guess is she is not going missing, you are just not waiting long enough.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm

tefer2 · September 24, 2011, 09:44:14 AM

I have seen every one of them walking around and then no eggs, and she is gone. I just thought that maybe I'm missing something here ?
In the past I used to have trouble finding the queens.
Making up five frame nucs was the best tool for teaching me to locate the queens I raised.
I'm taking the advice and dumping out and getting rid of the frames too!

tefer2 · September 24, 2011, 09:56:36 AM

Michael, I use your time chart and it's a useful tool, thumbtacked to the wall in the barn. Thanks for posting it.

FRAMEshift · September 24, 2011, 10:28:26 AM

Quote from: tefer2 on September 24, 2011, 09:56:36 AM
Michael, I use your time chart and it's a useful tool, thumbtacked to the wall in the barn. Thanks for posting it.

The chart shows 16+- 1 days for emergence and 28+- 5 days for laying. That gives 12+-6 days after emergence. Did you wait at least 18 days after emergence? And I'd give it a week more than that for bad weather and maybe another week for a slow layer. Only then would I start over.

tefer2 · September 24, 2011, 10:40:36 AM

Even with a mated laying queen, it is to late for a queen to get a brood nest going here.
I'll look for her when I dump them out. Raising queens was the easy part this year, keeping the birds from eating them is a lot harder. I think the birds know where they are coming from now and wait nearby.