# hole in side of queen cell



## skidmld (Jul 15, 2004)

On 5-21 I made a split. 5-26 I checked for queen cells, Didn't see any, so I added a frame of eggs. 5-30 I saw that they had started a queen cell. Today, 6-3 I saw a capped queen cell, but it had a hole chewed in the side and was empty. Will the workers do this? What do I do now, add another frame of eggs?


----------



## Riki (Jan 31, 2007)

I'd bet you already have a queen in your split! Maybe you missed a queencell at your first check? I think there's nothing wrong about adding another comb with eggs/larvae, probably won't hurt.


----------



## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

> Will the workers do this? What do I do now, add another frame of eggs?


Like Riki said, you already have a queen in there. They'll tear a hole in the side of queen cells and sting the unborn queen to death, then the bees will tear down the cell. It's probably a virgin, if you made the split on 5-21 the bees likely started raising a queen right off and you just didn't see it- they usually raise more than one in an emergency situation. Sounds like everything is going fine. You could add a frame of eggs if you have it, but I'd just wait a while and see what happens, you should see eggs about 25 days after the split, if the virgin mates successfully.

You could try and spot her, but virgins can be hard to find.


----------



## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

Virgins are the only ones that will open a queencell from the side. So yes, you have a virgin in there somewhere.


----------



## Chef Isaac (Jul 26, 2004)

Peg:

Why is that?

Skid:

put another frame of young larvae and eggs into the hive and see what happenes. If they do nothing, than you have a queen (maybe virgin). If thye make queen cells than you know you do not have a queen.


----------



## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

Chef Isaac said:


> Peg:
> 
> Why is that?
> 
> ...


Workers won't mess with a queen cell until the queen either emerges, is dead, or is killed by another queen.


----------



## skidmld (Jul 15, 2004)

I thought of the possibility of a queen being in the split that I didn't know about. If there is a queen, there had to be a queen cell on one of the first frames I put in . Or I moved the queen out of the original hive. If I am understanding M Bush's bee math , it takes 16 to 17 days for a queen to emerge. So since I started the split on 5-21 and if they started rasing a queen on that day, it wouldn't emerge until 6-6 or 6-7. 
I hope I do have a queen in there, and i hope it's a virgin and not the old queen from the original hive. 
Thank you all for the advice. I will keep an eye on them for a few more days. I'll try to spot the queen. If I don't then I'll add another frame of eggs. 
The thing that I worry about is losing the queen in my best hive by messing with it. I'm already wondering if I put her in the split with that last frame of eggs. I also worry about mashing her when I'm looking for another frame of eggs to put in the split._ know that the best thing to do is to find the queen and get her out of harms way before i start moving things around, but I have never laid eyes on the queen in this hive and I've had it for 3 years_


----------



## skidmld (Jul 15, 2004)

*Update: Hole in queen cell*

Checked today and saw eggs and larve in my split. Thanks to all for your suggestions and good advice.


----------

