Queens still in their cages, when to check again?

[JP]

I installed my 2 hives fri evening and just checked them a little while ago,
my queen cage on the left hive was on the bottom board with the queen still in it, candy almost gone. I brought her back up & re-situated her, the girls were friendly through all of this.

my hive on the right was situated around the queen cage, her still contained in it, and candy almost gone.

When do you pros suggest I open again for re-inspection & queen cage removal?


ps: I have a screen bottom board on each hive & tonite will check underneath to make sure queen cage is where it's supposed to be.
thnx for the advice, JP

[leominsterbeeman]

When do you pros suggest I open again for re-inspection & queen cage removal?

Not a pro here; but my answer:

If they are eating the candy, she should be out son and they will not kill her.    

I think you should wait 6-8 days from your last inspection.   Why six days?  It will take a few days for the queen to start laying eggs.  It can be hard to find a queen in the mass of bees, especially if she is not marked.   In six days she will be released and be laying eggs and some ofthe larve may have hatched into larve.  By 8 days, the larve will definitly be large enough to see.

[SherryL]

Definitely not a pro either, but you probably just caught them a little too early.  

I installed a queen about 3:30 Thurs. afternoon, checked about 12:00 today - she was released.  I didn't inspect the frames for her as Leo mentioned, it would be very difficult to find her (she's not marked) and there would have been no eggs to see yet anyway.  

I'll be back with my bees in about a week (they're 350 miles away now), I fully expect to see larva by then.

I'd give yourself about a week too - that's another day maybe 2 for them to release her and then the egg laying to start and you should be able to see some evidence of her by then.

Also, I think it gives the hive a sense of  normalsy for a little while - let everyone adjust.

My 2 cents.

[Horns Pure Honey]

On average it takes 3 days. Like leominsterbeeman said wait 6-8 days to check again.