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Queen cells aren't hatching

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CoolBees:
I did 10 splits with capped QC's on February 14th (from 4 hives). I checked them today. 6 of them did not hatch the QC'S. I'm assuming that I already know why: not enough nurse bees to keep the queen cells warm. All the un-hatched cells were on the bottom of the frames - all had multiple cells unhatched.

I put a lot of "bees" in these splits, but they must have contained a lot of field bees. Each of the failed splits had a very small amount of bees, whereas the 3 queenright hives were quite loaded with bees.

Of the remaining 4, 3 are queenright, and 1 hatched but didn't return from her mating flights.

30% wasn't what I was hoping for ... the learning continues ...   :smile:

jtcmedic:
I was in the same boat, I did my splits and we had a drop in temps in lost 2 of the. Just made 2 more. As the weather is going to be wonderful.

CoolBees:
It's been in the mid 60's up to the low 80's here. Nothing too cold.

Bee North:
Hi CB
Out of interest sake did you open the cells that didnt hatch...if so what did you find?
I ask this because a fellow beek/friend of mine was recently given 3 cells from a hobby queen breeder which never hatched. He took them to a club meeting and opened them up....nothing inside!
Anyone have an explanation.

FloridaGardener:
Did you take the splits 2 miles away? So the bees inside wouldn't go back to the original hive?

Also... what did you find after 6 weeks? Bees and empty comb? or Bees, comb, and nectar/pollen? Or no bees, empty comb?

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