How long to see eggs?

[AustinB]

I hived a swarm 2 weeks ago yesterday. It was a robust sized bunch of bees, they took to the hive nicely. I found the queen and carefully put her into the notch of my inner cover, whilst the colony marched up the ramp board. Fast forwarding I checked them 2 days ago, they are drawing comb nicely and filling it with nectar and pollen. But there are no eggs. I have looked for the queen, and I haven't found her. I checked each frame carefully, and there were no eggs. How long would one be inclined to let it sit and watch it before they decided the hive was no longer queenright? Are there other signs? When I checked them 2 days ago, they seemed quite calm to me, and there were 30 or so bees at the entrance fanning away like crazy.

[iddee]

To experiment and hope, I would wait 7 more days.20 days after emergence if she was a fresh virgin.

To be sure of having a good hive, I would buy a queen today.

 To not guess, I would add a frame of eggs today and check for queen cells in 4 or 5 days.

[.30WCF]

I would go with Iddee options 1 or 3 just because I?m not much on buying queens.


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[cao]

I would go with option 3 if you have other hives to rob a frame from.  I also don't like buying queens.

[AustinB]

Thanks for the feedback! Well I went in and did an inspection when I got home from work today. I found 3 eggs total. There may have been more, but I didn't want to disturb the bees too much. One egg was laid in a cell on top of pollen... But all were in the center of the cells, and there weren't multiples in a single cell, so I'm hoping it wasn't laying workers. The bees are very calm too, so I'm hoping she is in there. I did put in a full frame from another hive that had BIAS plus some honey. So I'm going to leave them alone for about a week until this chilly rainy weather passes, then perform another inspection.

[Oldbeavo]

Please decode BIAS??
When you first found the queen did you note her size?

[AR Beekeeper]

Oldbeavo;  I think it means brood in all stages.

[AustinB]

Please decode BIAS??
When you first found the queen did you note her size?

AR Beekeeper is correct, it means brood in all stages. When I saw the queen and put her in the hive, to my less than experienced eye she appeared to be nice and large.

[The15thMember]

I think adding open brood is a good decision.  It'll tell you if they want to replace her or not, and it'll give them a little population boost while they get themselves sorted out. 

[Ben Framed]

I think adding open brood is a good decision.  It'll tell you if they want to replace her or not, and it'll give them a little population boost while they get themselves sorted out.

X 2    I agree member.

[AustinB]

I think adding open brood is a good decision.  It'll tell you if they want to replace her or not, and it'll give them a little population boost while they get themselves sorted out.

X 2    I agree member.

I think adding open brood is a good decision.  It'll tell you if they want to replace her or not, and it'll give them a little population boost while they get themselves sorted out.

Ok great! I was hoping that was the right call to make. Now all I have to do is practice my patience until the rain and cold weather passes

[BeeMaster2]

Adding a frame of eggs and larvae is always a safe way to help out your hive.
Jim Altmiller

[AustinB]

It was nice and sunny today with bad weather in the forecast, so I did an inspection. I saw around 20-30 eggs. Not quite as many as I would like, and some have multiple eggs in a single cell. But they are all at the very bottom of the cell. I still didn?t see the queen but I assume she is in there. Going to check it in 4-5 more days once the weather gets nice again. One thing is for sure, they are some extremely calm bees. Hopefully they will build up nice and strong so I can split the hive and try to maintain that calm personality.

[BeeMaster2]

Austin,
If you Inspect too often you will set back your bees and slow their development. Your bees may blame the queen for your intrusions and kill her. Try to spread out the inspections to 10 days. If you have 2 hives, alternate the inspections so that they are inspected less. When you go into the hive have a purpose/goal. When your goal is reached, stop and put it back together. If you are checking on the queen, look for eggs and larvae. When you find eggs, stop and put the hive back together, exactly as you took it apart.
Jim Altmiller

[AustinB]

Austin,
If you Inspect too often you will set back your bees and slow their development. Your bees may blame the queen for your intrusions and kill her. Try to spread out the inspections to 10 days. If you have 2 hives, alternate the inspections so that they are inspected less. When you go into the hive have a purpose/goal. When your goal is reached, stop and put it back together. If you are checking on the queen, look for eggs and larvae. When you find eggs, stop and put the hive back together, exactly as you took it apart.
Jim Altmiller

Thank you Jim. I have been searching for info on the negative impacts of disturbing the bees too much, and haven't seemed to find anything very concrete. How often do you recommend to perform normal hive inspections throughout the summer? I have heard a range of opinions tbh.

[BeeMaster2]

Austin,
It depends on your area, mainly if Small Hive Beetles are a problem and the reason for doing the inspection. SHBs Rome around the hive and start laying eggs right after a heavy inspection and do so until the bees are able to fix everything that was disturbed. Then the bees have to remove all of the eggs. I have seen this take over 2 days, in my observation hive. On day 3 the SHB larvae starting to hatch and the bees have to remove them immediately or they can slime the hive.
If you are new to beekeeping, you do it more often to learn about the bees and what is going on in the hive. I recommend that you spend a lot of time just watching what is going on at the entrance and then compare it to what you see when you do inspections. Once every 10 days is okay preferably, alternating between hives.
I recommend that you get a screen top board. This will enable you to see what is happening on the top of the hives without actually disturbing the bees and you can look as often as you want.
I only inspect all of my hives in the spring and fall. Then I inspect hives when needed. I feel the weight of the hive and check the upper frames to see if they need Supers.
The entrance traffic and the top of the hive tell you a lot of what is going on in a hive.
Jim Altmiller

[The15thMember]

Thank you Jim. I have been searching for info on the negative impacts of disturbing the bees too much, and haven't seemed to find anything very concrete. How often do you recommend to perform normal hive inspections throughout the summer? I have heard a range of opinions tbh.

I have between 6 and 8 hives generally.  I try to inspect each hive once a week in the spring so I can keep a close eye on how the hives are building up and watch for swarm cells, but once everything has settled into the summer routine, I inspect a given hive every 2 weeks by doing like Jim says and inspecting half the hives one week and half the hives the next week.  When I have a hive making a new queen I don't inspect at all until that new queen should be laying, 3 weeks or so after I did queen cell reduction.