When you say “queen eggs were open”, do you mean “queen cells”? If so, are the cells yet to be sealed with a grub inside, or has the virgin queens emerged?
It’s hard to answer those questions without knowing time frames.
You should wait a few days, then check the population in the split, just to make sure that there is enough bees to keep that brood warm, as well as defend against beetle damage. If there’s not, the easiest way to rectify that is to swap the hive’s positions. Then keep checking.
If new queens are readily available, I would wait 3 weeks before inspecting each colony for new brood, before deciding to order any.
PS definitely study up on that link @Eva just posted. It’s important to know time frames. Once you know & understand all the time frames in relation to bees, everything becomes so much easier.
I didn’t see anything inside of the queen cells. The opening appeared to be very even and round. Not like they were chewed open.
If I wait three weeks before ordering a new queen, or queens (one for each hive), won’t I run the risk of the colony collapsing? I thought bees only live for 3 weeks?
No, the colony wont collapse. Bees live for about 7 weeks, not to mention any brood that will emerge during that time. The reason for waiting 3 weeks is to give the virgin queen time to mate, before starting to lay eggs. Actually you should really wait for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks, if you have had a successfully mated queen, you should start to see the first brood getting sealed over. If you wait too long before intervening, there’s the risk of a laying worker starting to lay eggs.
I’m not a fan of ordering a new queen if a queen failed to get mated, mainly because a colony could reject her. I would always add a frame of brood instead of ordering a new queen… If you see that a colony wants a new queen by producing emergency queens, that colony would probably accept a new queen, which you could do while tearing the emergency queen cells down.
Sorry about that - guess pasting from another post didn’t work. I’m tagging @Dawn_SD who has the actual pdf - but since she’s on the west coast you may find it sooner if you do a search on the forum for a previously posted one!
If you definitely have no eggs or young larvae anywhere, and no developed QCs, order a queen ASAP.
You can Google it the way I do each time. Just use these terms - wbka swarm control:
I don’t store the pdf, because they update it fairly regularly. It is an outstanding publication though, I am full of admiration for the thoroughness and concepts Plus it is freely available to all. What a great example of philanthropy, or maybe philapithropy? (I am no Latin scholar in inventing words, but the WBKA clearly exists for the good of bees. They set a wonderful example for the world to follow).
Just a small addition; if you are making a split and don’t want to move the second hive away, then its a good idea to put as many young bees as possible into it. Unlike the older forager bees, these wont leave the new hive to return to the parent hive even if kept in the same apiary.
You will find young bees in the supers and also on the brood frames. First add the brood frames that you want to add along with their bees. Then give some other brood or super frames a shake into the new hive; the older bees will take to the air and the younger bees will fall into the new hive.
Interesting. I had never thought of that. But I already split the hive last weekend. One week later, and the original hive doesn’t look like it’s missed a beat. Lots of activity.
The new hive has almost no activity outside the brood box. Someone recommended I feed the new hive to help them out. So between the lack of foragers and the sugar water, that might be why.
I plan to inspect both hives after two weeks to see if I can spot any eggs or larva, then make a decision about getting a queen for either hive.
Are hive beetles in NC? if so, you should do a brood check on the split, to make sure that enough bees are protecting the brood from beetle strike. Also check to see if there are emergency queen cells, if so, after 10-12 days from doing the split, don’t open the box from 28 days of doing the split. This is based on my experience that young mated & virgin queens will be vulnerable to getting balled & killed by the colony.
After 28 days from doing the split, you should start to see the first brood getting sealed. Don’t spend too much time looking because the young queen is still vulnerable to getting balled. Once I see sealed worker brood, I close the hive straight away.
If you took a lot of sealed & emerging brood when doing the split, you’ll have a lot of new bees coming on to replace the bees that went back to the parent hive. Therefore you’ll start to see activity at the entrance.
Thanks for that advice. I’ve cleaned the tray on the main hive a couple of times and haven’t seen any beetles. I’ll check for queen cells next week (as well as beetles) which would line up with the 10-12 day timing.
By the way, you live in a beautiful part of the world. I took a year long sabbatical to live in the Noosa Shire about 20 years ago and still miss it very much.
Hi & thanks Joe. It’s more important to check on the junior hive straight away, just to make sure that beetles haven’t had a chance to do any damage & lay eggs anywhere, while the colony is low on workers. You wouldn’t want to open it up next week to find a slime-out. That would be a REAL bummer.
I just checked the new hive split. No beetles. In my opinion, they seem to be languishing. I found a few new queen cells, of which one of them is capped. The others haven’t been filled or are still be built.
No larva or eggs, and some hatching brood.
Good - a pupating queen is in there so it’s only a matter of days before she emerges. Population will dwindle a bit until this new queen is all geared up as previously described - plus some foragers may have returned to the parent colony. If you can add a capped brood frame from the parent hive it will help.
I also just checked the original hive. That one still has lots of bees, and the honey super feels like it’s getting full.
I opened up the brood box. Lots of bees, no eggs, no larva, no queen cells. The seem a little more irritated than normal, which I supposed is because of the lack of queen?
So unless anyone suggests otherwise, I’ll sit tight for a second week, and in 7 days see if I need to get a queen(s).
So, your split has one capped QC and several uncapped but dry queen cups…and NO sign of a laying queen in the parent colony?
Sorry if I’m not following now, it’s been a few days since I was in the convo - but if your parent colony has no eggs, larvae or queen in sight and you’re absolutely sure of that, you should get your hands on either a mated queen or a frame of eggs/open larvae from another beek, stat. Irritability and a higher/edgier pitch to the usual hum of their buzzing is also an indicator that they’re queenless.
What’s the difference between a swarm cell and a queen cell? This attached photo was from a frame inside my new split. I assumed it was a queen cell but someone told me it’s a swarm cell.
A swarm cell is a queen cell, it is just one of the reasons that bees make new queens. Swarming is how bees produce “offspring” if you look at a hive as a super organism. Swarm cells are usually at the bottom of the frame.
Another reason to make a queen is if she unexpectedly dies, that would be an emergency queen cell. If the hive feels like the queen is not as productive as she could be, they will then make a supercedure cell. They are all queen cells but called different names for the different reasons they are made.
A good book to read is by Jurgen Tautz ‘The buzz about bees’. It is surprisingly easy to read and talks about bees as a super organism.
Plus it is freely available to all. What a great example of philanthropy, or maybe philapithropy? (I am no Latin scholar in inventing words, but the WBKA clearly exists for the good of bees. They set a wonderful example for the world to follow).