Newbie having queen/no brood issues - please help

Discussion and questions.
Post Reply
GoldenCO
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2015 6:39 pm

Newbie having queen/no brood issues - please help

Post by GoldenCO » Sat Jun 06, 2015 11:32 am

Need help assessing my new hive and next steps. Got bees for first time on 4/25 w/queen. Has been pretty rainy ever since. They are eating the syrup I provide, building comb and there's a lot of honey and pollen but no larvae or worker cells that I see. Opened on 5/14 and there were many (5 or 6) emergency queen cells which I destroyed (in hindsight I probably would have kept several and let them fix situation themselves). Got a new queen and introduced her on 5/16. It is now 6/6 and I still see no larvae or worker cells. There's one what looks like a queen cup (not cell?) but I 'm not sure anything was in it as they had just started making it 1 week ago. So I'm not sure what to do. They are working away and I did not hear the "roar" I read I'd hear if they are queenless. Would be grateful for any help on what I should be doing. Thanks.

kristinahoney
Posts: 93
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 8:44 am
Contact:

Re: Newbie having queen/no brood issues - please help

Post by kristinahoney » Mon Jun 08, 2015 7:53 pm

Hi,
Was there anything in the queen cells (larvae, royal jelly?) or were they empty (cups)? If there were larvae in the queen cells, then someone must have laid eggs in there. If they're collecting pollen, it's to feed larvae. You probably had a queen. If you were starting with foundation, she didn't have anywhere to lay until the workers drew out the comb, which would have gone slowly in the cool weather. Do you know what the eggs look like? Get good light and a magnifying glass if yo need it and have a good look. I offer mentoring services hands-on-one-on-one with you and your bees. If you're interested, contact me directly [email protected].
Cheers,
Kristina Williams
Beehave mentoring and support
Boulder, CO

Post Reply