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  • No queen cells

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #11456  by Dolly
 15 Jul 2021, 09:37
Hi again
I have a small cast of bees, unfortunately the queen did not survive.
They are in a seven frame brood box . I introduced a frame of eggs thinking they would develop queen cells
and ultimately have a new queen. I checked after four days and no queen cells not one ??
I am positive there is no queen . Any ideas :?
Thanks
 #11458  by Liam
 15 Jul 2021, 11:51
maybe a small virgin queen in the cast which are extremely hard to spot.
 #11459  by huntsman.
 15 Jul 2021, 12:33
Hi Dolly.

If they haven't used the donor eggs then they are happy.

Also if their demeanour is calm then they are fine.

As said, possibly a virgin needing some time to get into lay. give here a few weeks.

checking once a week is enough disturbance.
for now.
 #11465  by MickBBKA
 16 Jul 2021, 01:40
Its important to understand the difference in behavior between queen right and queenless bees. Too many people want to stick a frame of eggs or introduce a new queen when one is not needed. Better record keeping and understanding of the breeding cycle is a must.
 #11468  by AdamD
 16 Jul 2021, 08:44
Chances are that there's a queen in the hive, with warm weather forecast for most of us, she should mate and be laying by next weekend. You can take back the frame of brood if you are not concerned about disease although leaving it in with the swarm will give it a good boost.
If the colony doesn't have massive amount of stores, a feed will do them no harm in any case and will help identify whether there is a queen present as you will tend to see an area of polished cells where you would expect the queen to lay, surrounded by those stores - much easier to see if there is plenty of honey or syrup there.