Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
If you see more than one egg in a cell and these are laid up from the cell's base, you have
the problem of laying workers, and you should go straight to Chapter 8. If this is the
case, your colony may well be doomed, and you should ask for advice. If you see no eggs
in any of the cells then you either have no queen or a non-laying queen. It is possible you
have a virgin but unlikely in these circumstances.
Finding the queen
Now look over the frame for the queen, who will usually (but not always) be on a frame
of brood. She will be walking around more slowly than the other bees, and often the
first thing you notice is her longer, tanned abdomen. If you see her, have a quick look
and then gently lower the frame back into the box. If you have seen eggs and a queen
then you know that, barring signs of disease, all is well. If you ordered your bees with a
marked queen she will be easier to pick out, but if you can't find her and eggs are visible,
it is highly likely the queen will be somewhere around. Eggs are eggs for three days only
and so you had a queen three days ago at least and you probably still have one.
If you see eggs but still can't find the queen, make a note of which hive it is, wait another
three to four days and have another look. The eggs you saw previously will now be
young larvae. If there are plenty of eggs still visible this means your queen is good
at keeping a low profile when you are looking for her. Some simply disappear when
the hive is opened and can be extremely difficult to find even for the experienced eye,
especially in a large colony. In a small nuc, however, she will be much easier to find.
Investigating the brood nest
Look to see if there is sealed brood and unsealed brood in various stages of development.
This is normal in a healthy colony, with brood as eggs, young larvae, larvae and larvae
in capped brood cells.
Inspecting the brood nest is one of the most effective ways of determining the health
of the colony and it can give you a timeline on what has been happening in the colony
at various times up to the present. The presence of sealed brood indicates what was
happening 9-21 days ago (see Figure 20 later in this chapter). Young, unsealed brood
shows what was happening more recently, and eggs and tiny larvae show what is
happening up to the present. Young larvae should be pearly white and neatly coiled in
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