Made a nuc, having issues

[west end apiary]

Hey everyone,
So three weeks ago I made up a four frame nuc form I hive that has overwintered well and is growing by the day. I took a frame of honey, one of open brood and two of capped brood added an internal feeder and left them for seven days. Looked on the seventh day and could not see any queen cells. I then waited another week and inspected again and this time all the brood was capped or empty of brood, so I removed a couple of the empty frames and added two new frames with young open brood, to one of the them I notched the side of the lower portion of a couple of the cells to stimulate queen cells if they were needed.

Now today I have looked at the hive and the notched cells have been reaired and there are no queen cells present, so am I right in guessing that there must be a queen in there somewhere? and she most likely is just not laying yet?
Thanks, Nick

[Meadlover]

Hey Nick,

1. Did you check that your open brood had eggs when you 1st did the split?
2. Can you see any eggs in there now?

Sounds to me like you either did a split and there was no eggs or young enough brood to raise into a queen, or that there is a queen in there.
Have you checked the hive you took the split from? If you can see eggs or queen cells in there you will know where the queen is.

ML

[Michael Bush]

>Looked on the seventh day and could not see any queen cells.

There should have been cells unless you didn't get young enough larvae or you accidentally put the queen in the nuc...

[west end apiary]

hey thanks for the reply.
I checked the new split about three weeks ago after I made it originally. The fresh lot of comb I put in from my big hive definately had eggs and there is now lots of bees in there so they should have made a queen. THe old hive definately has a queen, she has had eggs and larvae continuously since the plsit was made.

Micheal if I did not have enough bees in the first time there should have been lots by the sedond time that I put fresh frames in there, they are now starting to build burr comb on the top, I consider that a sign of a healthy hive.

Wil just wait another week which will be four and will se if I have eggs, larvae or brood.
Thanks again,
              Nick