Blog Comments

When would be the very latest it would be considered viable to do an artificial swarm or to take a neuk from a very strong hive?

My biggest fear was that the bees might die off before a new Queen got to work

bees live much longer when they have no brood to rear. That is why winter bees can last so long.

Thanks Gavin.
I must admit that now as you emtion there was quite a noticable amount of shiny cells just waiting for an egg which I was struggling to understand.
My biggest fear was that the bees might die off before a new Queen got to work and there wouldn't be enough bees to nurture the eggs to hatching.
Do the bees possibly know that a new Queen is not in the vicinity and thats why they are nurturing a new Queen cup with an egg in it just as a safe guard, thats what made me think about introducing a new Queen.

Hi R-R and welcome to the forum. It may be that all you need is patience. Virgins in a prosperous colony can take 4-5 weeks to come into lay. Is it that long since she hatched? If the bees are very restless that may be a sign that they are hopelessly queenless. If they are calm and preparing a clear area of polished cells surrounded by an arc of pollen-containing cells then they will probably have a queen ready to start laying soon.

The usual test for queenlessness is to give them a frame with some eggs to see if they want to raise a new one.