new beekeeper - Queen cell not emereged after 3week

[jays_bees_2020]

Hi all,
I am new to beekeeping this year, and currently have 2 hives....
I started with one, and artificially swarmed this hive as I found QC's approx 4weeks ago. After removing all but one QC which was capped, I have left the hive for nearly 3 weeks, giving the new queen plenty of time to emerge, mate and return and hopefully lay eggs. I inspected the hive on Saturday to find that the QC is still capped? and no eggs....(all capped brood, has now emerged too so no developing brood left)....am I to assume the queen has not survived or should I leave for longer? or she did emerge, flew out and not returned...

I have tried to pre-empt the worst case scenario, and ordered a new Q to introduce as the hive wouldve been queenless now for quite sometime, so a quick solution is required beofre the WB start laying eggs too.

At the same time when I removed all other QC's from the AS hive, I kept one aside to put in a mating nuc, and this too hasnt emerged, it looks like the WB may have torn it down as the cell is smaller than the one I put in. Plus on further inspection of the mini frames, there are multiple eggs in cells, telling me that the WB are laying eggs.

I've recently read that it is possible the WB reseal the QC, why would they do this?

The original Q, is doing well in the new hive, laying etc..

[Patrick]

Hi Jay

It’s a frustrating time of year for many beekeepers Jay. After a queen had emerged usually the workers break down the vacant cell. But your research is correct, after a queen emerges there is quite often a flap left hanging from the top. For whatever reason the bees sometimes reseal the empty cell and it looks like the queen never emerged.

If it’s remained capped for three weeks, I would be inclined to use a finger nail or hive tool to try and “flip” open the cell tip and have a look inside. You may find it’s empty or there is an entombed worker in there dead and sealed in. This means there may be a non laying queen present.

Or you may find a dead queen pupa or larva. At least you will know.

Are the bees relatively calm or very flighty and cross?

If you have ordered a new Queen to introduce, you need to be sure you don’t have a queen In the hive.

[AdamD]

As you have brood in the other hive, I might be inclined to add a frame to the possible queenless hive. This will do two things. Firstly to stop laying workers developing which you suspect you have in the mini-nuc and secondly to act as a test frame so see if they draw queencells. If they do, then you are safe(ish) to introduce your purchased laying queen once they have been removed.

(By safe(ish), I mean that queen introduction is never guaranteed).

[jays_bees_2020]

I am going back to the apiary shortly to insert a frame of eggs from the other hive, but I have just watched the video back of the inspection (as i record them) and there were already empty queen cell cups that had been made on the frames, also the bees do seem quite lively too, so my initial felling is they are queenless already, just hope the WB havent started laying yet.

[nealh]

Carefully check the tip of the QC, not all QC caps are chewed away and some are hinged and even replaced/partly sealed up, use the hive tool to remove the end/cap. If it is empty you will have a VQ or mated Q in residence waiting to start laying.
As Adam aas said a frame of eggs will tell though usually the bees know best, three weeks can be too soon to see eggs.

[jays_bees_2020]

Thankyou all for your advice.......
I am also trying to read the hive before I open it and today has been a big learning curve, straight away you could tell the differecne between the 2 hives just by watching, the calmness of one hive to the eraticness of the second was unbelieveable.
So here is what I have done, as suggested I have moved a frame of eggs and brood from one hive to the QL hive .....and OMG, there were so many bees in the QL hive, dont know why I wasnt quite expecting so many! .... and they were very flighty and cross, alot of them were bumping me.

I did find a few empty queen cups, and I managed to open the capped queen cell, to find a grey mass of larvae/pupa, so without a doubt it was dead.

I didnt want to stay in the hive much longer, due to the temperment of the bees so allbeit a relatively brief inspection, I checked maybe 8 frames and they were all full of stores, and upto then no eggs, so I'm hoping the WB hadnt started laying yet.

Will adding the frame of eggs, help to calm the bees?? can they smell the pheremone of the other queen, from the frame?? and would it be a realisation that they can now raise thier own queen help?

Now, the choice on how to move forward.....
(slower choice)
Leave the hive to raise its own queen with the eggs

(quicker choice)
Introduce the new Q which arrived today, and break down any QC produced over the next few days.

(Increase)
Put the new Q, which arrived today, into the Mini mating Nuc, with a fresh amount of bees...(This Nuc definately had cells full of WB eggs, I was instructed to tip out quite some distance away, and I removed from the apiary as there was no point at the time leaving it queenless, until I get the 2nd hive sorted)

Also, due to the amount of brood frames full with stores and the overall amount of bees in the hive, I'm thinking of adding a super to give them more room? or would exchanging full brood frames with new ones be better?

[Patrick]

Good to learn things along the way Jay. Early clues before you even remove the crownboard are often useful - more tetchy than usual? May be a queen issue. Drone wandering on the crownboard - queen got above excluder and laid in the supers?

Personally I might hypothetically put the bought in queen in a nuc, let them requeen themselves and sort it out down the line when everyone has calmed themselves down. I say hypothetically as I don’t personally buy in queens in these situations but you could find at the moment they may be a bit cussed about accepting a stranger queen.

[jays_bees_2020]

I think i'm gonna throw caution to the wind and not put all my bees in one hive ....

Personally I might hypothetically put the bought in queen in a nuc, let them requeen themselves and sort it out down the line when everyone has calmed themselves down. I say hypothetically as I don’t personally buy in queens in these situations but you could find at the moment they may be a bit cussed about accepting a stranger queen.

I'm thinking the same, that leaving the hive to sort their own queen is the better option, as they are so unsettled at the moment, I think if the bees were less unsettled and it had been sooner I would use the new queen....I will still add a super though, all brood frames have been drawn anyway, so hopefully it will encourage them to move stores upto the super leaving room for Q to lay when she mates, plus I dont want a VQ emerging and not be happy with a jam packed hive, also at least with so much stores in the hive the WB had no where to lay eggs.

Putting the new queen in the mating nuc she can slowly build from there, I'll use house bees from the 2nd hive that is doing well, they are much more settled.