Did They Raise a Queen?

[Kerri Phillips]

I just checked on the bees that were brought home from the cutout of the 100-year-old brick building in Brodhead on July 25th. I'm wondering if I can be optimistic that they did successfully raise a queen based on their change in behavior to being quite peaceful and calm?

I was not able to spot either the queen or any eggs. However, the comb is quite a mess, so visualizing all the surfaces is really difficult.

Here is the timeline and observations for this hive since the cutout:

Day       Day of Week     Date

1         Monday          7/23 (possible date egg laid)

3         Wednesday       7/25 (cutout - make queenless)

4         Thursday        7/26 (equivalent to "grafting day" for purposes of using a calculator)

9         Tuesday         7/31 I *think* I saw up to 3 queen cells. Hive was highly defensive. Could not check the whole hive due to bees being agitated.

19        Friday          8/10 Hive check. I could not find the "queen cells" from previous check. Bees were still somewhat defensive. Most available cells full of nectar. Not a lot of pollen stored.

21-22                     8/12 - 8/13 Potential mating flights

27        Saturday        8/18 Hive was exceptionally calm. Did not spot queen or eggs. Very small amount of pollen stored. Their numbers are down but there are still bees on most of the 9 layens frames (equivalent to 2 medium frames each). A fair amount of new comb built on the frames with cutout comb.

[Joseph Bessetti]

Are any bees bringing pollen into the hive?

I think it's still a little early for the queen to be laying.  Give it another week.

Joe

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[Kerri Phillips]

Some pollen is coming in. Not a lot.

[Joseph Bessetti]

I should have some queen cells ready to emerge in 8-10 days if you check again in a week and don't find any evidence of a queen.  Just send me a text or email if you need one.

[Tim Aure]

I’ve got one that appears to be a drone layer.

Sent from my iPhone

[Joseph Bessetti]

Did she just start laying?  Or was this an established queen?

[Tim Aure]

This was from an established hive. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Aaron R]

I have found it takes about a month for my new queen to start laying. It is really scary and difficult to be patient! Bringing in pollen is a good sign. Just a little more patience. One of the most exciting days of beekeeping is finding the first eggs after letting the bees raise a new queen!

[Greg V]

Bringing pollen could also mean you have laying workers (say, your virgin did not return from mating flights).

One of my nucs was a good demo of exactly that this summer.

(Had to terminate it after catching the issue too late - they were happily bringing that pollen to feed the drone larva).

Inspecting for abnormal egg patterns periodically is a good idea.