# Gave split another frame of eggs. They did not make a queen cell.



## jhinshaw (Aug 14, 2014)

Last week I gave a split I made on the first week of April another frame of 1-2 day old eggs because as of last week there was no evidence of a queen. Checked back this week and they had capped them all off as worker brood. Why?? Surely they would have made a queen cell. There is no other brood in the hive!

Edit: Split actually occurred April 24th. Just checked calendar. Thank god for calendars.


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

If there was no eggs in the hive and you gave them a frame of brood and they failed to make a queen, Then you have a queen in the hive. Either a virgin or a mated queen who has not begun to lay. Are you sure there are no eggs? if there is a laying worker in the hive, the bees can see her as the queen. in which case they think they have a queen.


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## jhinshaw (Aug 14, 2014)

Tenbears said:


> If there was no eggs in the hive and you gave them a frame of brood and they failed to make a queen, Then you have a queen in the hive. Either a virgin or a mated queen who has not begun to lay. Are you sure there are no eggs? if there is a laying worker in the hive, the bees can see her as the queen. in which case they think they have a queen.


When I checked last week I did not see ANY eggs at all and I was really looking on every frame but I had noticed that they no longer appeared to be pollen bound in their brood box. Several of the frames had been cleared out. Not sure if that was from usage or moving.


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## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

was most likely clearing space for a new queen to start laying - prepping a brood nest


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## jhinshaw (Aug 14, 2014)

I split them on April 24th so I guess I thought I would have seen a laying Queen by now for sure.


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## birddog (May 10, 2016)

Somthings not adding up in guessing there is something your not seeing or didn't see previously


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## jhinshaw (Aug 14, 2014)

birddog said:


> Somthings not adding up in guessing there is something your not seeing or didn't see previously


Yeah that's why I'm asking here. I've inspected pretty thoroughly.


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## rmaxwell (Apr 23, 2014)

I've had hives where I thought there should be a newly mated queen but I didn't see eggs or larvae when I should have per the calendar. I gave them wet frames of brood just as insurance to see if they would start new queen cells or to help hold off laying workers. Shortly after introducing the wet brood, the newly mated queens started laying within a few days. Could have been they weren't ready yet or perhaps the wet brood prompted activity. At any rate, that has happened to me more than once.


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## NewbeeInNH (Jul 10, 2012)

Did you have a lot of rain in mid-May? Her mating flights could have been delayed.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

sakhoney said:


> was most likely clearing space for a new queen to start laying - prepping a brood nest



This ^ I was going to ask if there was even room to lay, we had such a good early flow this yr, I had similar problems with a couple of my splits.


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## jhinshaw (Aug 14, 2014)

rmaxwell said:


> I've had hives where I thought there should be a newly mated queen but I didn't see eggs or larvae when I should have per the calendar. I gave them wet frames of brood just as insurance to see if they would start new queen cells or to help hold off laying workers. Shortly after introducing the wet brood, the newly mated queens started laying within a few days. Could have been they weren't ready yet or perhaps the wet brood prompted activity. At any rate, that has happened to me more than once.


I'm hoping this is what is going to happen. Probably going to check back in a week. Hopefully there is actually one there and I wont end up with a laying worker situation.


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## jhinshaw (Aug 14, 2014)

NewbeeInNH said:


> Did you have a lot of rain in mid-May? Her mating flights could have been delayed.



There was a lot of rain but I believed there was enough to get out and mate. That said, I don't know much about the time requirements for mating flights... :/


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

jhinshaw said:


> There was a lot of rain but I believed there was enough to get out and mate. That said, I don't know much about the time requirements for mating flights... :/


We were getting daily rain during that period. We had a swarm during those rains, and the resulting new virgin mated successfully and is laying up a storm now. In fact, she did it about as fast as the bee math allows. I concur, if your rains in TN were anything like ours in WV, there were still plenty of mating opportunities.


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