As I detailed in an earlier thread, I was worried about one of my hives. One of the theories offered by a number of forum members was that it may have gone queenless and I should check ASAP. Unfortunately, a stretch of bad weather kept pushing that back.
Original ThreadAnyway, I finally got a look this past Sunday (Feb 24th) and confirmed my fears, the hive is queenless. I first noticed problems right after moving them from their Nuc on Feb 8th, so I'm "assuming" that's when I lost her, although there's no real way of knowing.
Both Bailey and Schawee have offered me what I know to be solid advice, it's my ability to effectively implement it that has me concerned. :?
I moved a frame from my good hive Sunday to the queenless hive to give them a chance to make a queen. My problem is, I'm not sure a got a frame with 1-3 day old eggs.
As a plan-B, I moved one of my newly drawn out frames of foundation to the middle of my good hive. We did this to encourage the queen to lay there, in case I need to take another shot at giving the queenless hive another frame. Schawee has offered to come take a look, if we can ever get a decent looking day of weather...that could be today, but more likely tomorrow, but in Southeast Louisiana you never know with the weather.
Anyway, my question is, I know the clock is ticking for this hive. I'm curious...How much time do they have to get themselves a queen and when will they hit the point of "it's just too late". Do I roll the dice till the end, or at some point do I cut my loses and try to merge the remaining bees with my existing hive?
All thoughts and suggestions appreciated!