Patrick wrote: ↑25 Jun 2020, 22:10
You got unlucky.
I got unlucky on 2 occassions, as I had also removed a second sealed QC from the same split and put that into a mating nuc, only to discover that didnt emerge either and the WB were laying..had to shake the whole lot from the nuc.
With both, I had chosen QC's with all the right characteristics, but they were both sealed, so could never have known if the were either full or not, unless I had opened them...this time I will check before the 8th day to chose one that I can see into.
AndrewLD wrote:"After an artificial swarm" - so you did this before they swarmed and have the other half with the queen - and therefore a source of eggs / very young open brood?
Yes, so the first attempt was after the AS, the Qless hive was full of eggs, young brood etc from the split, so it was a great progressing hive that was left to raise their own Q, and in the time it was left for the Q to emerge , mate and lay....majortiy of brood had emerged, and the bees were filling frames with stores, luckily they filled it so much there was no room for a laying worker to get busy in..
The split hive, has the old Q, so that is doing fine, building well after the split, but I have had to move another frame of eggs, brood to the Qless hive for them to they raise another Q, which is where I am at now...time to chose a Q cell