A single hive was set up with empty drawn comb in a single box. After six hours a new queen with candy tube was introduced. The bees were on the comb when the queen was put in and a feeder pail was put on. After a week the bees were checked for queen acceptance and eureka, a new hive was born.
Photo by I don't remember the beekeepers name Italian Queen on upper left of photo |
Laying workers. Many eggs in cells. None fertilized. Spotty brood pattern |
Whenever a hive has no brood, no queen, no eggs. The first thing a beekeeper should do is take a frame of eggs from another colony(if you have one) and shake the bees off and put the frame in a broodless hive.
- Move a frame of eggs into a broodless hive. The presence of brood in a colony prevents laying workers. This buys time so a beekeeper can get a new queen. This method also answers some questions.
- If a hive has swarmed and a beekeeper is unsure of this, a frame of eggs can help confirm this. The hive has no eggs maybe very little brood. Move a frame of fertilized eggs (not drone) into this colony. After four days a quick check of the frame. If there are queen cells, you have no queen. If there are no queen cells there is a queen in the hive, she has not started to lay yet. It is always better to purchase a new queen than to have the bees raise them. A purchased queen starts laying in a week, it takes a made queen three weeks to start laying.
- Right now with the cold spring it may be After June 7th before a good queen can be made in Minnesota. Drone population are low at this time and need at least two more weeks before good mating can occur.