I added the second brood box less than a week ago and wanted to check that she was OK a couple days later. She was walking around a lot vs popping her booty in and laying quickly.
How long does it take for her to really start popping out eggs again, creating a healthy laying pattern, and getting adjusted.
It doesn’t look like she went back down to the first brood box again.
Hi Clayton. Your queen possibly never got out of the routine of popping out eggs. Adding a second brood box shouldn’t interrupt her egg laying. Furthermore, she may stay in the top brood box indefinitely.
With 2 brood boxes, I’ve seen queens lay in the top brood box only, while the bees use the bottom brood box for honey, while another colony will do it the other way around.
The queen doesn’t decide where she is to lay, broadly speaking. The colony decides that for her. All the queen has to do is lay eggs, & lay well enough to satisfy the colony, otherwise she’ll get superseded.
This is my opportunity to promote my favorite Youtube video “City of the Bees” It needs to be watched several times, so that we get a good understanding of what they’re showing.
It shows bees preparing cells for the queen to lay in, it also shows the queen being fed the amount of food in relation to how many eggs the colony wants her to lay, & they also explain what happens to a poor performing queen.
Fantastic, I love this platform everyone is so knowledgeable!!! I’m going to check out that video. Thanks again buddy.