Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 26

Thread: Newly hatched Q ejected from nuc

  1. #1

    Default Newly hatched Q ejected from nuc

    A colony inspection - 20th April - showed a second year marked Queen, plenty bees. eggs sealed brood (good pattern), some sealed drone brood and plenty stores. The colony has good qualities and I had planned to rear Qs from it. Just over a week or so later a second inspection showed no eggs, some old-ish unsealed larvae, sealed brood and four sealed Q cells - no Queen (despite a second search). Thinking that something had happened to the Q I decided the best plan would be to make up an Apidea nuc and a Poly nuc, leaving 2 sealed Q cells in the colony.
    Within the three or four day window that I estimated queen cells might hatch, I noticed (while on a "displacement activity" mid-day bee-hive watch) a warm dead queen on the nuc landing platform (it was light-ish brown but overnight on the kitchen table it turned dark and under a hand lens had all its "bits"). I am sure there was only one Queen cell on the introduced nuc frame and that the colony Q had not been transferred to the nuc in error.
    Am I being optimistic in asking if anyone has an explanation or am I being too confident that I have not accidentally killed the colony Q or transferred her to the nuc?
    Alan.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Belfast, N. Ireland
    Posts
    5,122
    Blog Entries
    94

    Default

    If your queen had an accident on 20th April during the inspection you would expect queens to be emerging from emergency queen cells 12 days later, ie 2nd May.
    If you found a fully formed queen on the landing board then those dates dont stack up. There must have been queen cells started already during the inspection on 20th April.

  3. #3
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Jurassic Coast.
    Posts
    1,480

    Default

    A queen started from an older larvae could well be emerging on or about the tenth day (despite claims elsewhere that bees never try to rear queens from older larvae...).

  4. #4
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Belfast, N. Ireland
    Posts
    5,122
    Blog Entries
    94

    Default

    But yesterday was 9 days and a 9 day queen, if it were even possible, would be the size of a worker.
    I suspect something else must be the cause of this.

  5. #5
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Jurassic Coast.
    Posts
    1,480

    Default

    As it darkened overnight I'd be inclined to speculate that it wasn't fully mature -at least, I've never seen a fully mature queen darken in a noticeable way and certainly not in such a short period as 'overnight'. Probably not going to get a definite answer -the way to do that would have been to open the queen cells when found, note the stage of development and then throw them away.

  6. #6

    Default

    I have a paynes double nuc on 5 + frames of brood
    There were just sealed cells and an open one on todays inspection
    Possibly squeezed the queen between frames or something last inspection
    Couldn't spot her but she might be there
    Anyway took down all the cells and I'll have a check in a couple of days
    Dependant on what I find next I can use a queen from a mininuc (I have 3 left)
    It would be pointless to have let the cells get to maturity next week it just makes things harder

    Well thats' my take on it I'm sure not everyone would agree

    I think you will get your answer alan at the next inspection
    Your queen sounds like she was removed by the bees probably dead
    There might be another virgin running around
    Just a guess though

  7. #7

    Default

    I inspected the colony brood frame with Q cells yesterday (30th April) - and found an open Q cell (hatched) - it looks as if I missed seeing young Q cells on 23rd April and that I had killed the colony Q at an April 13th inspection (a check on my hive notes shows that I had not recorded eggs present on the 20th April). I wonder why the dead immature nuc queen had hatched?
    Thanks for the comments. I will let you know if the colony and Apidea manage to get fertile Qs established.

  8. #8

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    Your queen sounds like she was removed by the bees probably dead
    There might be another virgin running around
    Ah - another one running around would make my day.

  9. #9
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Belfast, N. Ireland
    Posts
    5,122
    Blog Entries
    94

    Default

    Agree with DR. You probably have a virgin queen in there.
    Makes more sense with the revised date.
    If your queen was killed on the 13th there were likely virgin queens emerging from the 25th onwards.

    Prakel, a lot of the queens I see emerge in the incubator get a bit darker over the next few hours from emergence.

  10. #10
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Jurassic Coast.
    Posts
    1,480

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Agree with DR. You probably have a virgin queen in there.
    Me too.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Makes more sense with the revised date.
    If your queen was killed on the 13th there were likely virgin queens emerging from the 25th onwards.
    I'm not sure that it makes any sense as there was open brood a week after the twentieth, so where could that have come from if the queen was killed on the 13th.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Prakel, a lot of the queens I see emerge in the incubator get a bit darker over the next few hours from emergence.
    Yes, I agree that very recently emerged queens darken up, that was my point. But they're not really what I refer to as mature. In this context I'm differentiating between a weak recently emerged (or pulled from it's cell by a competitor) virgin and one that's had chance to strengthen up a little.

    This is one we prepared earlier:
    10458310_855088417921376_8604358267873291085_n.jpg11953076_855088551254696_6964025422048462300_n.jpg

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •