need advice on Queening

[djgriggs]

Okay , I went from two very strong hives to 5..

when I had done the splits the extra hives that were created had queen cells. I am seeing very little to no activity in the 3 newly created hives. Even the one where I had seen a new queen is missing the queen..

Whats up. No queen cells, no new queens and one hive that was checked yesterday seems to have queen cells without queens in them / no shadows ????

Sense all of the bees came from 1 hive , could I take my original queen and hive hop her until i have new eggs in the other hives / splits...

I know that you cannot introduce a new queen suddenly like that as she will be killed but I am wondering if this also goes for hives / splits that were created from the original queen..

My first thought and probably the correct one is to go through the the good hive and see how many egg frames I can find and if I find 3 just move one over to each of the queen less hives ?  as she is an egg laying machine :)

[AR Beekeeper]

You need to give us a time frame of your splitting the strong hives.  How long ago?  Were there queen cells in the colonies?  Were they open or capped?  If no cells were present when the splits were made did you make sure each split had a frame with eggs and very young larvae?  When you say queen cells with no queens, do you mean queen cups?  The cup is a cup until there is an egg or larvae in it.

Give us more information, then we can make an educated guess.

[cao]

when I had done the splits the extra hives that were created had queen cells. I am seeing very little to no activity in the 3 newly created hives. Even the one where I had seen a new queen is missing the queen..

Whats up. No queen cells, no new queens and one hive that was checked yesterday seems to have queen cells without queens in them / no shadows ????

One possibility,  queens didn't make it back from mating flights.

Sense all of the bees came from 1 hive , could I take my original queen and hive hop her until i have new eggs in the other hives / splits...

I know that you cannot introduce a new queen suddenly like that as she will be killed but I am wondering if this also goes for hives / splits that were created from the original queen..

IMO way to risky.  There is always a chance of rejection of a new queen to a hive.  Why compound it by hive hopping her?

My first thought and probably the correct one is to go through the the good hive and see how many egg frames I can find and if I find 3 just move one over to each of the queen less hives ?  as she is an egg laying machine :)

Your first thought is the correct one.  A frame of eggs and larva can cure many problems with a spilt.  If they are in need of a queen, they can make one.  If they just need a few extra bees, they have them.

[BeeMaster2]

What CAO said x2.
Jim

[djgriggs]

You need to give us a time frame of your splitting the strong hives.  How long ago?  Were there queen cells in the colonies?  Were they open or capped?  If no cells were present when the splits were made did you make sure each split had a frame with eggs and very young larvae?  When you say queen cells with no queens, do you mean queen cups?  The cup is a cup until there is an egg or larvae in it.

Give us more information, then we can make an educated guess.

June 6th. each split had a queen cell and eggs.
Now no eggs the one queen that was found last week can no longer bee seen/ found.
I was  going to go into the two deep hive today to pull a frame of eggs. I however stopped as I could not locate the marked queen . but I know she was there yesterday..

I am just getting frustrated. I spent two hours out there today . could not find the queen so I backed out and accomplished noting. @#R##, not for sure where to go now. just feeling lost

[iddee]

Do you think a queen starts laying the day she emerges?
Consider day 1 as the day the egg was laid.  Day 16 is the day the queen came out of the queen cell. Day 36 is when you should consider it queenless if you have no eggs.
At no time, in no way, for any reason, should you be looking for a queen.

[BeeMaster2]

DJ,
Going into hives twice in two days is not good for a queen right hive. It is even worse for a new queen who has not had a chance to prove that she is a good queen. New queens are very hard to spot even for experienced beekeepers. When a new queen hatches she needs time to get strong, orient to the hive location, mate and then develop her ovaries before she starts to lay eggs. This is about 11 days. Then you need to give her time for the larvae to hatch. The larvae pheromones, in large numbers, are what tell the bees that she is a good queen. Figure at least 20 days from when you know she hatched.
Jim

[sc-bee]

Try this information:


https://honeybeesuite.com/when-will-newly-hatched-queen-begin-lay/

[djgriggs]

DJ,
Going into hives twice in two days is not good for a queen right hive. It is even worse for a new queen who has not had a chance to prove that she is a good queen. New queens are very hard to spot even for experienced beekeepers. When a new queen hatches she needs time to get strong, orient to the hive location, mate and then develop her ovaries before she starts to lay eggs. This is about 11 days. Then you need to give her time for the larvae to hatch. The larvae pheromones, in large numbers, are what tell the bees that she is a good queen. Figure at least 20 days from when you know she hatched.
Jim

Thank you,,

I have been traveling for the last few days but that has given me some extra time to read up on splits / queen cycle etc.. Thank you for this information. I am thankful for everyone's input / direction / knowledge "Free bee classes" :) I am learning a lot my main issue is that I am anxious. I believe that to be my biggest issue.  As soon as I can get a good camera I will post some pics..

As of now. I am not seeing much activity still externally from my three splits. However my main foundation hive is bustling. I opened it before I left for travel and I must say that I was a bit scared as in not for sure what to do. Two 10 frame deeps. I removed the top box which was full and sat it down by the time that I had turned around I could no longer see the bottom box it was completely covered in bees... I just did not realize how many bees they were. Not for sure what to do with this box. I was told that I could attempt another split because it is so full and there are about 3 frames of eggs.. I do not know I want to try another split 1. to many for my back yard now (5) total hives , that includes current 3 splits. 2. not seeing what I think should be adequate activity on the current 3 splits.

[BeeMaster2]

DJ,
I would not make another split. Add a super and you now know you can take frames of bees and brood to help the splits.
Jim

[cao]

DJ,
I would not make another split. Add a super and you now know you can take frames of bees and brood to help the splits.
Jim

Ditto. 

Although you might need 2 supers with that many bees.

[beepro]

"....

Sense all of the bees came from 1 hive , could I take my original queen and hive hop her until i have new eggs in the other hives / splits...

I know that you cannot introduce a new queen suddenly like that as she will be killed but I am wondering...."

Last night on a hive check, I took out the dinky queen from my 5 level deep nuc hive and then put in
a newly mated Cordovan queen from another nuc hive without any issue.

The privet flow is on strong now.   I put in 4 frames of bees from the nuc hive in the 4th box level.   They did not kill the new queen!  I then
took the queen to the bottom nuc box with a QE on top.