# Ripe Queen cell hasn't hatched



## scallawa (Jul 6, 2013)

Background. 
I picked up a nuc May 9th. I was not able to get them hived until Monday. I barely checked them but thought they looked a little light. It's my first nuc so I didn't think much of it. It rained quite a bit after installation so wasn't able to get back in and check them out until three weeks later. 
I get in to check on them in about three weeks (May 30th) and I didn't see any progress most of the brood was hatched with only a few capped cells and no eggs. I found a queen but thought she looked pretty skinny and one "supercedure" cell about 3/4 down the frame. The cell was chewed open on the bottom. I am guessing the original queen left soon after I got them or just prior to me receiving.

I figured I had a virgin queen now. I decided to give her a little time to mate and start laying. Checked again on June 5th and situation was no better. There was no capped brood, no eggs and no larvae. I had a friend who had a queen cell. I removed the current "virgin" queen and placed her in a nuc with a frame of resources and bees. Left the original hive queenless for a day and saw their behavior change. I added the queen cell a day later on the 8th to the original hive. Their behavior changed back to what I would consider normal the following day.

I checked today (Jun 15th) and the queen cell is still unopened. There were bees that seemed to be tending to it. That makes 9 days that she has been in my possession as a capped queen and I know she was capped at least a day before. Is there any chance of her still hatching and being viable?

My nuc didn't look so good either. I didn't do a full inspection because of time but I still haven't seen any larvae or eggs. I also didn't see the queen. Granted, I did not spend a lot of time in there and.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

How old was the cell when you got it? And this "virgin" queen you pinched did she have any room to lay? If it swarmed which sounds like what it did they they would have probably backfill ed the broodnest if they don't have anywhere to move it to once the new queen is ready she has to wait. Next time you get a nuc put it into a full sized hive a day or 2 after you bring it home


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## scallawa (Jul 6, 2013)

Not sure the age. I just know that it was capped at least a day before I got it. There is and was room to lay. 

I expected there to be more cells if they swarmed. This almost looked like they tried to raise a queen in an emergency situation. I could see if she had no room to lay and then she hung around for a few days and then left. That would leave them with few options for making queens but even that doesn't seem right since she lays many in a short time span.

The nuc was installed 2 days after receiving it due to weather. What do you mean by a full sized hive? I installed them into a single deep. Are you saying I should have placed them into a 2 deep hive?


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

I've had capped queen cells that failed to open when I moved them too soon (ie. right after they are capped). They are still very fragile at that age. They should be at day 14 before they are handled, which means they will be hatching in a day or two. If it were my hive, I'd order one mated queen to get the hive going right away, and probably recombine the little nuc back into the main hive as they are both struggling.

Local beekeepers should be raising queens now, I'd recommend you check with your local bee club to see if you can get local stock. I find they do so much better.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

scallawa said:


> Not sure the age. I just know that it was capped at least a day before I got it. There is and was room to lay.
> 
> I expected there to be more cells if they swarmed. This almost looked like they tried to raise a queen in an emergency situation. I could see if she had no room to lay and then she hung around for a few days and then left. That would leave them with few options for making queens but even that doesn't seem right since she lays many in a short time span.
> 
> The nuc was installed 2 days after receiving it due to weather. What do you mean by a full sized hive? I installed them into a single deep. Are you saying I should have placed them into a 2 deep hive?



ha ha my bad, some how I read that you got it may 9th and somehow though you hived them last Monday, I though they had been in the nuc that long. Sorry, but yeah, probably got a jarred cell that knocked the larva off the royal jelly, but I have no clue why they didn't remove it and tear it down by now ????


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## scallawa (Jul 6, 2013)

Thank you all for your advice.

Ruth,

I took your advice. I combined the nuc back in with the hive. The virgin queen was not in there. Maybe she went for a mating flight and got plucked. I got another queen which arrived today. I removed the queen cell and gave it some time. Then i placed the queen cage in. 

Hopefully everything goes well. I plan on just seeing if she is released in a week. They have been queenless for a quite a while now so I think they should.

I opened up the queen cell that I had in the hive. She wasn't fully developed and was dead.


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## scallawa (Jul 6, 2013)

I just checked the hive today which is about a week after the cage installation. The queen was released. 

I didn't do any further inspection just removed the cage and locked everything back up. Keeping fingers crossed.


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

In my short career I've noticed a somewhat interesting number of empty queencells that are fully capped. When I grafted earlier this year they started and capped a few cells. Then probably a week later built a nice beautiful queen cell that was completely empty. Just cut and empty out of a hive that just had a virgin emerge too, the other cells were torn into from the side.


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## windfall (Dec 8, 2010)

Last year i had to split up a few swarmy hives into nucs. Some of the nucs got frames with multiple cells
When checking on them later I found several where one cell had emerged, but the other cell was neither emerged or destroyed(well past due)
Curious, I opened two in different nucs and I believe from different parent hives.
Each had a small dead larva and royal jelly, but most interesting, also had an entombed worker head first. I guess they got busy capping and someone got stuck?

Never saw it before, and have no idea how common it is.


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## CessnaGirl (Jan 7, 2014)

Yeah, I had a failed QC when I miscalculated the days and moved the frame right in the middle of the sensitive time. It was my bad. Took the bees a long time to figure out she wasn't going to hatch. I let it sit because I was curious to see how long it would take for them to tear it down.


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## McCoslin (Dec 4, 2013)

I had a queen cell that was still capped 2 days after she was supposed to hatch. I figured something happened to the cell. I cut the tip off to do a "post mortem" and to my surprise a live queen crawled out. I put her in a nuc and she is now a laying machine! I call her my C-section queen.


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## scallawa (Jul 6, 2013)

Did an inspection today and found my queen, saw larvae and capped brood. Was a bit surprised to see capped drone cells as well. There were quite a few.


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