Queen cups from may 10 had been emptied by May 13

More to the Puzzle

Beekeeping, SARE Grant

I went out to move my queen frame into a cell finisher and they had uncharged all of the queen cells, and extended the brood comb over the area. Here’s a before & after (May 10 on top and May 13 below). I tried to get them about the same size.

Queen cups from may 10 had been emptied by May 13

There’s also an egg in the fifth cup over, that once had a well-provisioned larva. I suspect her neighbor is provisioning as well:

An arrow points to the egg in the cell.
I knocked off the brood comb and moved the frame to the finisher anyway (they need something to do to give them purpose), and put a new queen frame into this nuc. Apparently once I see good larvae I need to pull the frame immediately.

Northeast SARE LogoThis material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number FNE24-102. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.