multiple eggs in a hive with a new queen
Today's adventure in beekeeping started in a pair of splits I had made. It has been one month since moving the queen cells out of the parent colonies, so it was time to make sure our new queens were at work. In one, there were eggs and little larvae, so the queen made it back from her mating flight, and it looked good. In the other one, though, there were no eggs at all. The bees were a bit more runny on the comb, but since they are Russians, that would not be abnormal at any time. This might be a symptom of queenlessness in a Carni colony, though. I left with the idea that I needed to order a new queen, since there wouldn't be time for the bees to raise one before we start losing bees to attrition. (Queenless bees do live longer, however).
At the next apiary, I had added a replacement queen to a package after the original queen died. She was in a 3 hole cage, which is bigger than a California queen cage, so there was a bit of space between the frames. The bees had drawn some comb from the roof and from the queen cage. The new comb was full with multiple eggs in every cell. My first thought was that there was laying workers, and they had killed the new queen. Then I checked the comb in adjacent frames, and there were mostly single eggs per cell, and some hatched larvae with royal jelly. This isn't for-sure indicative that there is a good queen. The bees may be cleaning the multiples out. Thinking about the new queen, I realized that she had been in the cage for a week at my house, then almost another week before the bees released her. She may have been under a lot of egg laying pressure after being caged that long. She might be fine. So, what I'll do is wait for the larvae to be capped, and if they turn out to be worker brood, I'll know the queen is good, since if it were laying workers, the brood would all come out as drone brood, even though the eggs are in worker cells.
The colony to the west of this new one had recently swarmed, as evidenced by a recently opened queen cell on the bottom of a frame. I just closed it back up rather than intrude on the virgin queen. The colony to the east had capped queen cells, too, but they were much younger. The baby queens inside were small enough that they were still doing somersaults inside the capped cell. I found newly laid eggs, so I knew the queen was still there. Removing all the frames with queen cells at this point will not deter the bees from swarming, they are too ready to go, so the only option is to find the queen. This is a good challenge in a super-full hive, but I did find her. Since the bee owner does not want any more colonies, here was the answer to my other queenless colony. I put her in with a cork, so the bees can't let her out. I'll check back in 3 days and see how their attitude is toward her. If they are good, I'll direct release her, and let her go to town with just what she wants, a new little colony. Fun in the bee yard! T
At the next apiary, I had added a replacement queen to a package after the original queen died. She was in a 3 hole cage, which is bigger than a California queen cage, so there was a bit of space between the frames. The bees had drawn some comb from the roof and from the queen cage. The new comb was full with multiple eggs in every cell. My first thought was that there was laying workers, and they had killed the new queen. Then I checked the comb in adjacent frames, and there were mostly single eggs per cell, and some hatched larvae with royal jelly. This isn't for-sure indicative that there is a good queen. The bees may be cleaning the multiples out. Thinking about the new queen, I realized that she had been in the cage for a week at my house, then almost another week before the bees released her. She may have been under a lot of egg laying pressure after being caged that long. She might be fine. So, what I'll do is wait for the larvae to be capped, and if they turn out to be worker brood, I'll know the queen is good, since if it were laying workers, the brood would all come out as drone brood, even though the eggs are in worker cells.
The colony to the west of this new one had recently swarmed, as evidenced by a recently opened queen cell on the bottom of a frame. I just closed it back up rather than intrude on the virgin queen. The colony to the east had capped queen cells, too, but they were much younger. The baby queens inside were small enough that they were still doing somersaults inside the capped cell. I found newly laid eggs, so I knew the queen was still there. Removing all the frames with queen cells at this point will not deter the bees from swarming, they are too ready to go, so the only option is to find the queen. This is a good challenge in a super-full hive, but I did find her. Since the bee owner does not want any more colonies, here was the answer to my other queenless colony. I put her in with a cork, so the bees can't let her out. I'll check back in 3 days and see how their attitude is toward her. If they are good, I'll direct release her, and let her go to town with just what she wants, a new little colony. Fun in the bee yard! T
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