queens

[OPAVP]

 Friends,
Can you tell me when a one year old queen should start laying?
Il 'l explain.
I had 4 hives going into the winter. I must say that I took honey off in the middle of August. Then started having trouble with my legs and spend 3 months in and out of the hospital with artery by-passes on both legs.  I was only able to check the hives a couple of weeks ago,they were snowed in. I have one hive left. The temperature has only been in the low 1o degrees Celsius(Whats that in Farenheit)??  The workers are bringing in a little bit of pollen.I'm feeding a patty and syrup. When swhould the queen start laying full bore??
Regards,
OpaVP 

Lethbridge,Alberta. 60 miles north of the border

[TheHoneyPump]

It has been an extremely extended winter/spring in the North, as you well know.

I can share that 16 days ago (April 9) when I first did a very superficial check of only a few frames in a couple hives that there were no larvae no brood and only a palm sized patch of 1 -2 day old eggs.  That was right after the cold snap.  When I finally unwrapped them and checked again 2 days ago, they were obviously getting ramped, by observing 3 1/2 to 6 frames mostly full of eggs, larvae, and those palm sized patches of capped brood.  Expect emerging bee bombs and swarming in 2-3 weeks ;)

Some queens are slower to get going.  Especially if they ended the long spring with a very small cluster left.   If they are starting to bring in the willow dust, you are feeding syrup and patty, I would say she is well underway to be going full bore right now.  However the size of the patch of brood you see will be limited by the size of the cluster over it.  The queen may be laying more but the bees cannot care for cells laid beyond their cluster.  Those will die and be eaten.  More bees make more brood and more brood make more bees and more bees make more brood .....  It all starts with how many bees there are, plus a good queen of course.

Hope that helps!

[beepro]

She should be laying full force if you feed them well.  April should be the right time for any queen to lay.  But the weather
might affect her a bit.   She will not lay in full when there isn't any fresh pollen coming in to feed the new broods.  A strong hive
might be able to forage more there by increasing her laying ability.   A weak hive will delay her laying even more until the temp is
up in the 60s consistently.    Somehow a strong hive and the outside temp coming out of winter with plenty of food will affect her
ability to expand her brood nest.  If all condition are met then you don't have to worry about it that much.