Queen Laying

MrILoveTheAnts · June 01, 2007, 12:43:48 PM

I have a fair sized hive that I recently split in two. I've only now checked to see if they have a queen in both though. Today I inspected the second hive of the two (first one does have a queen) and I found capped larva and some adult larva (no longer forming a "c" in the cells) but that was all. Now I only found this on three frames and the frames all around these were either full of honey or under developed comb. The frames were filled with developing brood just not any younger stages. So my question is could there be a queen but she's trapped on those frames? Will she move over honey to get to open cells?
They swarmed on the 11th of May and by my count wouldn't I have all capped brood by now if there wasn't a queen? It has been a 4 weeks now.

(Separate issue)
I also have another split of this hive from earlier in the year. They are cleaning out frames from the former hive that was in there. The queen is doing a great job and filled up 4 frames with brood. I notice she's only stopped by the fact that the workers haven't cleaned out the other frames though. This sort of supports my reasoning for asking the question above.

Shizzell · June 01, 2007, 04:34:52 PM

As you know, larvae usually isn't used to create queens. I'm betting you don't have a queen on that other hive since you split it. I would give them a frame of eggs and if they still don't use any of those, then order a new queen.

Jake

Ross · June 01, 2007, 05:16:50 PM

You can play it safe and give them a frame of eggs to work with. If they don't draw queen cells, you likely have a queen. My bet is you have a queen, either virgin or not yet laying. The queen is not trapped on any frames in a single box. She will traverse every frame.

Brian D. Bray · June 02, 2007, 05:47:32 PM

>>I only found this on three frames and the frames all around these were either full of honey or under developed comb.

Sounds honey bound. Check the underdeveloped cells for eggs and the brood area for eggs once the current crop of brood hatches. A honey bound hive does not build up well and can appear to be queenless because the queen has no place to lay eggs.

asprince · June 02, 2007, 06:05:54 PM

Brian, I have a hive that is loaded with honey and the brood area seems small compaired to my other hives. Do I correct this by removing some of the frames of honey and replacing they with empty frames? If yes, do I place these empty frames in the center of the hive?

Steve

Brian D. Bray · June 02, 2007, 06:26:21 PM

Pull some of the honey frames adjacent to the brood frames and replace with new frames. You don't want to split up the brood chamber but enlarge it. With the frames placed next to the brood frames the bees will begin drawing the comb and the queen will begin laying in the cells before they are fully drawn out.
In a honey bound hive it is a good practice to super, taking the honey frames from beside the brood frames, replace them with new frames and then place the honey frames on the outsides of the super. this way the bees will enlarge the brood chamber up as well as out.

MrILoveTheAnts · June 04, 2007, 01:17:32 PM

Well I opened the hive up today and found eggs in developing worker cells. They do have a queen, which is great because I got stung and it saved me the trouble of opening one of my other hives with a stinger in my chest. Stealing brood certainly wouldn't have helped matters. Thank you everyone.