Reassurance or advice required!

Hi all, I am new to the forum but on my 3rd year keeping bees. I have some concerns on 1 colony that I started with 2 Queen Cells and 4 frames of brood & Bees on 10th April, this was left for 3 weeks and inspected on 1st May, when the queen was spotted suspect mated due to size but no eggs present. The situation has not changed when inspected on 1st, 7th & 14th May.
What appears to be a mated queen (IMHO) is present but no eggs at all.

I had expected her to start laying by the 7th at the latest, but am now unsure what to do with her?
If she unsuccessfully mated would she start start laying but drone only?
How long can wait before trying to replace her? ( I currently have no queenright colony to take a test frame from.)

Thanks in advance for any advise/comments
Hopefully you will see a picture of the Queen(Becky) here:

Give her another week or two. A test frame will do you no good as you have a queen there. If she hasn't mated it will be drone brood.

Will a queen still start laying, even if not successfully mated?
Sorry am just trying to think of worse case scenario here.

mojomoo said:

Will a queen still start laying, even if not successfully mated?
Sorry am just trying to think of worse case scenario here.

Click to expand...

As Veg said - yes she will, but because she has no sperm to fertilise her eggs with, all her progeny will be drones and the colony will be doomed.

mojomoo said:

If she unsuccessfully mated would she start start laying but drone only?
How long can wait before trying to replace her? ( I currently have no queenright colony to take a test frame from.)
:

Click to expand...

At least you know the colony has a queen, and now you have to wait until she starts laying to see what brood she produces. If she ends up as a drone layer you will perhaps be able to tell from the appearance of oversize larvae in worker cells; once the first of her brood is capped that will be your confirmation.

If she is an unmated queen your colony is up that proverbial creek without a paddle. Finding and killing her, and then introducing a new queen is a possibility.

Does she appear mated to those more experienced of you? she does seem smaller than some other queens Ive seen.

Hi mojomoo,

She looks bigger than some laying Qs I've had in the past. Virgins can take an inordinately long time to eventually start laying, longer still if the weather's gone cool, food source dried up, or there are no empty cells to lay in.

Do you know for a fact that she's the same Q that was in the QC back in April. I've had many a situation that I was running with one scenario in my mind, and the girls were singing from a completely different hymn book let alone page!

To answer your question, in 14 years I've never had a Q not come into lay and still remain in the hive. Have had a few not come into lay and dissappear (eaten during mating flight?) and have had quite a few recently not mated properly and started off drone laying from day 1 or shortly afterwards. IMHO you can't tell if she's a DL until they start capping the cells as the larvae seem to be normal worker size and you just end up with worker sized drones, cute but completely useless.

Hang on a bit longer and good luck.

Cheers, Mike.

10th April. Open or closed cells? let's assume closed.

Expected emergence 18th april.

Now one month, or four weeks and a couple of days.

Getting to the extreme of the window. Unless there are polished brood cells at this time, I would not be too confident of a good queen.

Your dates may vary a bit. I would be time-lining the other(?) Q- colonies for availability of some eggs/young larvae or considering buying in a laying queen, or whatever you plan might be, should she fail. Nothing else to do except wait just a few more days.....

With a queen present you are not particularly 'time-strapped' for a replacement. You have spare bees? No real problem, apart from the time lost for this season. Just don't let her mess up all your comb if she turns out a drone layer.

RAB

Just to let you all know, inspected yesterday and found 3 frames of eggs/grubs so all is well!
Thanks for the reassurance.