On April 6 I made a split from #1 by taking its queen, some nurse bees, brood, honey and pollen and putting them in a nuc. There were plenty of eggs left for the bees to make a new queen. The queen that had been put in the nuc eventually ended up in #2. She is in the top brood box separated from the bottom with a double screen. The bottom had a laying worker and when I last looked, 8 days ago, I saw an egg in the bottom box. I soon will take out the double screen. The foragers from the top box have been using a small entrance in the back so they will have to learn the new orientation.
#1 had been a strong colony and I figured that they would easily make a new queen and thrive. I took a look in 3 days ago, 38 days after making the split. It takes 16 days for a queen to emerge after the egg has been laid. It then takes a couple of days to mate, maybe a week to rest and so one expects a laying queen in about 4 weeks, counting from laying. So, naturally, I expected a laying queen. I saw this:
Since you are all experts by now, you recognize this as a queen cell that has been opened on the side. This is what an emerged queen will do to her yet to emerge sister queens. So I knew that at least one queen had emerged. Unfortunately, I did not see a her nor evidence of a laying queen (eggs and/or larvae).
The time it takes to make a laying queen can frequently be five days longer and even longer if bad weather prevents the mating flight. Still, 5 1/2 weeks is really stretching the limits. I will check again in a couple of days. If there is no queen I will just combine #1 with #2 & 3. I have no more nucs, so the apiary will be short a hive.
By the way, Olea's hive seems to be thriving. I have added several bars and they continue to make new comb.
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