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Author Topic: Is this normal?  (Read 4879 times)

Offline Shane ear

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Is this normal?
« on: May 14, 2012, 09:14:51 pm »
I recieved queens in the mail recently. Made up some nucs and they are all doing well but one.I can see the queen walking across the frames, and she's been out of her cage for two weeks now, and no eggs whatsoever.Is it possible she wasnt mated?, Or are some just slow about laying?Anything I can do to get things going. I've added some brood, but nothing yet.

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Is this normal?
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2012, 09:43:52 pm »
She may have been caged up during her normal mating time and never mated. 2 weeks is a little long not to be laying eggs especially since she should have been mated before you got her. Contact the seller. If he is any good, he will replace her. Do so quickly. You do not want workers to start laying. The first queen that I received in a nuc had defective wings. I called the seller, he came out and we tried to replace her but it was too late, the SHB took over and destroyed the hive. He replaced it with a full hive because by that time it should have been a full hive.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline Shane ear

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Re: Is this normal?
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2012, 10:40:23 pm »
She may have been caged up during her normal mating time and never mated. 2 weeks is a little long not to be laying eggs especially since she should have been mated before you got her. Contact the seller. If he is any good, he will replace her. Do so quickly. You do not want workers to start laying. The first queen that I received in a nuc had defective wings. I called the seller, he came out and we tried to replace her but it was too late, the SHB took over and destroyed the hive. He replaced it with a full hive because by that time it should have been a full hive.
Jim

Thanks Jim, I'm kind of amazed the bee's in my nuc ever accepted her if she's not mated.And not only did they accept her, they haven't attempted to make a queen from the brood I placed in there either. I have plenty of colonies right now and not worried about the nuc falling victim to laying workers. I'm going to keep the nuc closed up for a few days and take a peek to see what has happened and keep you posted. Unless someone has any other suggestions.

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Is this normal?
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2012, 02:46:46 am »
I have seen caged supposedly mated queens take two weeks to start to lay.  If they aren't laying in two weeks I would get a new queen.
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Offline Shane ear

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Re: Is this normal?
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2012, 09:17:13 pm »
I checked the calendar and today was 20 days she has been in the hive and still no eggs. I took her out, made some pictures of her, and disposed of her properly. I'll contact the queen producer tomorrow and explain what happened, since this was my first order with them, how they handle this will determine if I ever buy from them again, all I expect is for them to be nice. Ive been completely satisfied with my usual producer, so that's all folks..BTW, I added some fresh eggs and open brood to the now queenless nuc.

Offline Kathyp

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Re: Is this normal?
« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2012, 11:10:59 pm »
did you plan on buying a queen?  they will start making queen cells right away with eggs in there.
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline Shane ear

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Re: Is this normal?
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2012, 11:57:34 pm »
did you plan on buying a queen?  they will start making queen cells right away with eggs in there.

My intentions are for them to make a queen,I was just trying a different race of bee to see how I might like it, and if the producer will send me another one to replace that one, then I will make another nuc for it. I've got 25 colonies here at my property now and six at outyards.This is just the first {dud} queen I've ever bought from a producer.

Offline Joe D

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Re: Is this normal?
« Reply #7 on: June 01, 2012, 12:16:55 am »
What type or race was you trying to get.  I am fairly new at beek, just bought my first queen.  She is Cordovan and Russian cross, and gentle.  And she is laying in less than a week.

Joe

 

anything