hi.
Im sure i photographed a queen on Oct 18th.
My hive is teaming with bees but I have no capped brood, no sign of larvae or eggs.
Stacks of honey and some pollen.
Photo was nearly 3 weeks ago.
Could my image have been a newly emerged queen and im about to see eggs or should I have seen some laying by now?
I am able to buy a queen this week - feel like I should.
Help!!!
Thanks
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Hi @Rod300, are you able to share the photo? If she’s newly emerged she’d need to take a mating flight. Based on your timing, eggs would be hard to spot.
Were the bees calm or cranky?
What is the history of the colony. This may give us a better understanding on how to inform you ie did your hive swarm recently? Did it start as a nuc 2 months ago etc…
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Hi fffffred,
This is the shot lower centre near the clump, there’s a very distinctive abdomen that I hope is the queen. In another image you see the darker, hairless upper thorax.
Bees were very calm today - I had a look and still no evidence of eggs - honey glistening all over the frames and heaps of bees - covering most frames.Yet no capped cells of any kind (perhaps 5-10 at most - aside from honey.)
The capped cells in image have all but gone now.
The colony is a very young nuc, purchased off an established beekeeper. I’m too embarrassed to call him!
Thanks for your ideas.
Rod
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That’s her majesty - the legs are nice, thick and strong to help her do squats as she lays.
That’s a good sign. Queenless colonies tend to be very defensive.
Eggs are hardest to see. Any larvae? They are a pearly white.
Depending on how this nuc was put together and the stage it was in, those capped brood might not necessarily be from this queen.
Nothing to be embarrassed about. You’re just starting out. He’ll be understanding and should be glad to share his knowledge.
Post up some photos of frames on your next inspection and maybe a few members on this forum can give you an opinion.
Being a young nuc though, don’t disturb them too much unless you have big concerns.
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Thanks- your comments are a comfort. I’ll wait for 2 weeks before looking again. That’ll give time for some eggs and larvae to build up.
There are no larvae but as you said, all existing cells that have had bees emerge may have been from a previous queen.
They said it was a patience game!!
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Bees have been surviving for thousands of years without human intervention. You’ll be alright 
or should I say, your bees will be alright… you might worry more than they do 
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As a new bee keeper can I ask if this is a photo of a queen bee being balled?
Hi Joyce, just realized that you are referring to the earlier photo.
It’s No to your question, the worker bees are just crowding around the queen.
Cheers, G.
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Oh I was asking in regards to the shared photo from Rod. 
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Thank you. Yes. Oh ok. I just thought she looked like she had her head down and ready to try protect herself. Thank you for respond. Cheers
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Good to know she’s ok. I checked the hive 2 weeks after that shot - no sign of eggs. I will give her another weeks then check again.
Hoping to see some activity by then.
2 other people I was talking to, we were looking at this photo educating me, and both of them first thought was, it was most likely balling. Which might explain lack of activity since? There is so much to learn with bees and hives. We collected our first honey today!
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Hi Joy, that queen bee looks to be in defensive mode. It may be the start of the queen getting balled. Very young queens are very susceptible to this type of behavior. I don’t do any inspections from just before the queens emerge till it’s time to check for capped larvae. If I don’t see any evidence of a queen, I promptly add a frame of brood containing eggs & or young larvae. This will stop a laying worker from developing, which can be more difficult to deal with.
I work on 4 weeks from the time I do the split to when I look for the first sealed brood to start happening.
I hope you enjoyed that honey, cheers
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I will be inspecting this weekend, 2 weeks since last inspection and about 4 weeks since photo of queen. Will hope to post good news on Sat. Night.
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Thanks dad. Oh. You saying that. Now I am worried that maybe in my small hive, it’s not queen laying but worker brood. How do you tell the difference? I will have to do a bit more googling.
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If you can see the eggs, workers often lay multiple eggs and the eggs are to the side of the cell or even on the wall, not in the center. That is because a queen has a longer abdomen and can reach the center. The laying worker is not long enough to reach the middle of the cell.
If you can’t see eggs, then when the brood is capped, it will always be drone brood from a laying worker - the caps will be domed, not flat.
Final thing, laying workers are usually untidy in their brood pattern. Queens tend to lay in nice ovals or arcs. Workers do more of a “Jackson Pollock” scribble of dots scattered all over the place.
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Thank you Dawn. I did show dad my photo of my from of boos. If it was dreone come he would of picked that up. I will relax a bit. Thank you.
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Hi Joy, it’s basically what Dawn said, also the bees will draw the comb higher to accommodate the extra size of the drones. It’s when you see drones in worker comb, that happens. Something that @Rod300 will have to bare in mind when he does his next inspection.
With the amount of splits I’m doing, I seem to have a laying worker on the go full time. As soon as I fix one, another one starts.
I’ll be able to show you the brood of the current one that I suspect is a laying worker. I’ll have to start looking at the egg laying to confirm in the future. I’ve been waiting for the capped brood up until now.
Sometimes a queen can lay a mixture of drones & workers in worker comb. That’s easy to fix, because you can find the queen, dispatch her, leave her body there, then the bees will quickly get to work making a new queen on fresh brood you add. That’s after removing all of the existing brood from the hive.
cheers
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Thanks for that info.
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Thanks Jeff, this is really helpful. Tomorrows inspection will be very carefully done with attention to detail.
I’ll be looking for eggs, egg placement and the cell cap shapes
Will photograph too for reference.