I went out to visit Roxi's old hive yesterday - 6 days after installing the new queen. I just couldn't wait an entire week to see if she was still there and, most importantly, laying eggs. When I opened the lower brood box the cage the new queen was shipped in was empty ... that was good news, but I was a bit worried that not only was the hole with the candy fully open, but the cork plug on the opposite side was missing too. Why would that come out? What if the cork plug fell out and the queen was released before the hive was used to her pheromones?
The only way to know was to inspect the hive. I was very careful to check for the queen on every frame I pulled. I ordered a marked queen in order to make it easier to find her, but I reached the last frame and didn't see her. Equally distressing was that I couldn't see any brood or larvae developing. I tried to rationalize that nasty fact by arguing that the bees had probably only eaten through the candy plug a day or two before - hardly enough time for the new queen to start laying eggs. But, it was equally likely that the new queen was not in residence.
Needless to say, I was devastated as I left the hive. What was I going to do if the new queen didn't take? I didn't have time to order a new queen before leaving on vacation, and I didn't want the hive to raise their own queen since I wouldn't have control over the line of progeny. My only choice was to leave the hive for another 5 days and check it right going on vacation. If the queen wasn't laying by then, I was just going to have to let Mother Nature take it's course.
No comments:
Post a Comment