queen introductions

[rober]

I installed new queens into 2 newly made nucs. checked a week later. one queen was out & I did see her. 2nd nuc the queen was out but did not see her which doesn't mean she wasn't there. I week later the nuc with the queen I found has 5 sealed queen cells. talked to my queen breeder who says sometime the bees take some time to fully accept a vhs bred queens & to remove the queen cells because they could cause the queen to swarm. so-I removed the frame with the queen cells the following day but did not see the queen ( which again doesn't mean she wasn't there. I removed one cell from the frame & put it in the nuc where I did not see the queen. I then took the frame with the remaining cells to my home yard & put it into a large swarm where I've not seen the queen or any new brood in 2 weeks. this morning I checked the swarm & the queen cells were open from the side not the bottom. so maybe there is a queen there after all or will a hive sometimes kill sealed queens on there own? do queens ever emerge from the side? also this hive was cranky but not overly aggressive.

[biggraham610]

Let me qualify, I am second year. No, Queens emerge from the bottom with a perfect looking cutout. Yes, if the side is torn out something killed them. Yes you could have the original queen in there. You also could have a virgin that hatched from one of the other cells in there. You also could have a newly mated queen that hasnt started laying yet. Hope it was of some value. Good Luck. :chop: