# Would you be happy with this queen?



## Bee scared (May 21, 2016)

Just recently requeend 10 hives on the 18/10/16

Checked 9 hives and all going well on 28th. Eggs and Larvae present. 

Except 1 had no eggs or larvae and a very small queen running around. Went back in the hive today the 30th to see if things had changed. Found her again, she seemed a little bigger, but no eggs or larvae. I must of watched her for 15 mins trying to decide if I should knock her off and replace her as had some more queens coming in 2 days time. I decided to also film her with my phone and maybe ask the breeder for a replacement. Trouble was in trying to film her I inadvertently half dropped the frame, luckily I didnt lose her. The bees all got a bit upset and i finally got a good recording and what does she do...... goes and lays her 1st egg and i caught it on film. Haha
I wonder if the shock of dropping the frame scared her into laying or if she is a really crap queen that is laying 1 egg every 30 mins??

Ill check again on tuesday when i have more queens but what are your thoughts? just a little slow to get laying or a dud queen??

Remember I did watch her for a full 15 mins and she was just walking around and there was no other eggs to be seen?

http://vid184.photobucket.com/albums/x91/mattryan_photo/IMG_0082.mp4


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## herbhome (Oct 18, 2015)

I don't know if she's a dud but you do have a great story to tell in the years to come!


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## Slow Drone (Apr 19, 2014)

Could have been a virgin queen who has recently mated it happens.


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## Lburou (May 13, 2012)

If you don't have a honey flow right now, put some sugar water (syrup) in that hive, sometimes that helps. You can reevaluate her in time.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

I leave them in a Laidlaw cage for 11 days and check. No brood by 21 days, and she goes into a mating nuc (3 full frames) for one more week, the rest of the hive gets a new one in a Laidlaw cage. After the fourth week, underperformer queenie gets turned into queen juice.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

the video you posted was of a queen laying eggs. maybe you are having a hard time seeing the eggs due to all the bees on the frame. Or maybe the hive is low on resources so the queen is being conservative in how many eggs she lays since they can't take care of whole frames of them.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

I would get rid of her now and requeen. Why wait? It's spring, and with a new queen the colony has time to rebuild itself. You might add a frame or two of emerging brood to help give the new queen some nurses.


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## Richard Cryberg (May 24, 2013)

I think she was a virgin when you got her and she needed time to mate with your local drones. It has been 12 days since you got her and I suppose she was in some kind of introduction cage for two or three days before being released. Depending on what weather you have had starting to lay in 12 days seems just fine to me. At this point she looks normal size for a queen just starting to lay. I think if you give her another three days you will be seeing lots of eggs and possibly even larva from eggs already in there that you overlooked.


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## tech.35058 (Jul 29, 2013)

Really cool video of queen laying.
keep in mind, I am a hobbyist. (about 10 hives & nucs, fluctuates some.)
Size wise, she appears to be normal size for most of my carniolian & feral mutt queens.
I have had better looking queens that were totally used up, though.
If this is about a hive that needs to produce, move this one to a nuc for a second chance ( or dispose of her) & replace her.
If its a hobby, roll the dice, maybe she's ok, or maybe not. its only money.
Good Luck! CE


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## Bee scared (May 21, 2016)

ruthiesbees said:


> the video you posted was of a queen laying eggs. maybe you are having a hard time seeing the eggs due to all the bees on the frame. Or maybe the hive is low on resources so the queen is being conservative in how many eggs she lays since they can't take care of whole frames of them.


Im very good at spotting eggs, the other 9 hives that wee requeened all had eggs and a few day old larvae on multiple frames. This hive had nothing on the 28th, went through entire brood box and nothing 2 days later.

All 10 hives were of the same strength when split and requeened and from the same apiary.


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## D Coates (Jan 6, 2006)

Evaluate her larval/laying pattern in a week. If things are improving give her another week or two. At that point, she a new queen and should be laying chockablock. If she isn't going gangbusters by 3 weeks pinch her and start over. Ironically I was in Queensland 3 weeks ago training our Australian distributor. While there and walking the property where we were going to be doing our training I found a nice swarm of bees hanging under a pallet that was leaned up against a fence. Fortunately they left before the demos started but it was cool to see. Enjoyed a bit of XXXX and Melbourne Bitter while there, and brought back a few Tim Tams.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

A small queen has nothing to do with her laying pattern. I got the majority of my late
Autumn queens going into winter here. Many are smaller than the Spring raised queens.
These smaller queens are prolific layers going strong now as we're about to enter winter.
Small or big you have to look at the queen's health, genetics and laying pattern. A solid milky egg pattern is
what I'm looking for. She will get fatter once started laying. She may be small but a big impact on the hive's health!
Going to take some graft from this one comes Spring time. I've consolidate all of my mite infested cap 
broods into this hive headed by a late mated queen. I like my vsh bees. Agreed to give her more
time for a fair evaluation. Your other queens coming can take the splits from your other hives. Even a 3 framers will
hold a queen quite nicely for later expansion.


One small queen, a big impact:


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## Bee scared (May 21, 2016)

Thanks for all you replies guys.

For info I went back in on the 2nd and she is laying up nicely. No prolific but plenty of eggs about so will see what it all looks like once capped. I do wonder if they killed the queen I placed in the hive and raised their own or if for some reason she was a slow starter. Or even perhaps if she was egg bound in some way. The fright of dropping the frame may of been the catalyst that got the 1st egg out??


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