- Joined
- May 9, 2012
- Messages
- 719
- Reaction score
- 101
- Location
- Mid Wales
- Number of Hives
- 3 TBH + 3 Nat (+ Nucs)
Hello - Can anyone tell me whether a colony will try to draw queen cells either using their own duff laying worker eggs - or eggs from a drone laying queen? - Or is the presence of a few charged queen cells telling me they definitely do have a mated queen in there, if a failing one?
- This is a post-split situation. (One of the queen cells looks very odd - very long, but still has a larva in it. Others look more usual.) Last week there were some apparently good, single eggs, down at the bottom of cells, but otherwise scatterings of two or three in cells, and no queen cells. As they draw their own comb (no foundation) and the cell size is a bit variable it's not the first time I've wondered if the cells were wide enough for workers to lay eggs right down at the base. Left it a week in the hope that this was a new queen sorting herself out, but this week, all developing larvae look to be drones and queen cells have appeared. Could see no queen, despite looking, but that's not unusual!
- This is a post-split situation. (One of the queen cells looks very odd - very long, but still has a larva in it. Others look more usual.) Last week there were some apparently good, single eggs, down at the bottom of cells, but otherwise scatterings of two or three in cells, and no queen cells. As they draw their own comb (no foundation) and the cell size is a bit variable it's not the first time I've wondered if the cells were wide enough for workers to lay eggs right down at the base. Left it a week in the hope that this was a new queen sorting herself out, but this week, all developing larvae look to be drones and queen cells have appeared. Could see no queen, despite looking, but that's not unusual!