The weather is looking better this week, so I've been getting ready for the new queens. Last Wednesday I put a queen excluder between the two deep boxes on the two hives. My hope was to give the new eggs time to hatch (4 days) and then I could figure out which box had the queen since one box should have eggs and he other wouldn't. Well this evening I tore into the first hive. I did a quick look in the top box, no noticeable eggs, so I thought the queen might be in the bottom box. So I then started frame by frame looking for the old queen. Boy did I have a mess. This hive is hot anyway, and the more I looked the hotter they got and the hotter I got. By the way, do you know what a bad noise is? I figured it out, a couple of mad bees on the inside of the veil. I sure am glad my hives are out of sight of anyone. I know I looked like a real idiot out there running and slapping and trying to get those zippers opened. Well back to the hives. Anyway I looked real close I couldn't find the queen, nor could I find any eggs, in either box. There were no queen cells so I assume there must be a queen, if they are queenless, how long does it take for them to develop queen cells? The new queens will be here Wednesday, If I can't find the old queens, what is the best course of action?
Dave