First Nuc inspection & 3 queens?

Beekeeping - Basics
1

Hi All,

Very new beekeeper here, located in the Hawkesbury area. I did my very first inspection on Sunday and I think I have 2 virgin queens in my hive??

A little bit of background, I received my first Nuc just over a week ago and transferred into an 8 frame brood box (with three frames of foundation). I also installed a top feeder to help the bees get started in their new home.

I did my first inspection Sunday just gone and everything seemed okay but I noticed that they hadn’t even touched the 3 new frames, does it normally take a little while for the bees to start drawing new comb on the new frames?

During the inspection I saw the queen (marked with a blue dot) but as I was putting the queen excluder back on I noticed what I think might be 2 virgin queens??
When I picked up the Nuc, the beekeeper did say he had to replaced one of the frames as the Nuc was becoming full quite quickly and was at risk of swarming. I’m assuming 2 queens had emerged prior to replacing the frame.

What do I do from here? Do I just let the bees sort out the boss?

Sorry for the blurry picture, taking photos with the gloves on is harder then it looks haha I also made sure to flip the excluder over and made sure they both went into the hive safely.

Thanks in advance for any help :blush:

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Heya, neither of those bees are queens, so you are safe on that front. It does take a while for bees to draw out comb and so you shouldn’t expect that to happen too quickly. If you are in a flow they will be busy going after that and will sort it out on their own to store nectar faster and so you shouldn’t supplementally feed during that time. If you aren’t in the flow, keep feeding them and they will draw out the comb they need as they need room for the queen to lay and get ready for the flow.

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Thanks Tim. Do you happen to know what they are?

Oh perfect! I guess patience is key!

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A bit blurry but I think they are drones.

5

I wouldn’t use a QE at this stage. They don’t look like drones to me. They probably are virgin queens because after zooming in on them, I can see color on the legs.

If the marked queen is a young mated queen, I’d remove those virgin queens, if it’s not too late.
cheers

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