I believe that the reason that they didn't feed the eggs is that that part of comb you placed there wasn't on the right direction. If the cells are not at the right direction they don't do anything to it. They cut the wax and rebuild it.
Interesting….given they didn’t draw cells on your test frame my thinking would be there must be a queen in there. Perhaps delayed mating due to the weather being poor until recently?
Thanks David. Had a good look for a queen but could not see her, but perhaps I did miss her. I will check the frame in a few days to see if that gives an answer. Or perhaps the nuc is just a bit too small and now a bit old to be viable. Hope it's not too hot where you are today.
@@eastsussexbeesandwildlife5801 I did read that you really need a reasonable size hive to draw decent queen cells so I suppose the size of the nuc may be a contributing factor as you say. I’m surprised they didn’t even try to draw some though. Weather here is great…bees busy on the bramble, clover and especially the lime which has just started to flower
@@davidianoliver thanks David. Hope you manage to get some honey soon! My attempts at nucs are a bit experimental, suppose it would be easier just to buy in a mated queen or two, but I enjoy trying things for myself, even if they do fail!
Good luck
Hopefully Ull have better luck this time round, with the weather on your side 👍🏼☀️
Thanks Alex, will keep you updated, good or bad. If all fails, can always buy in a mated queen.
I believe that the reason that they didn't feed the eggs is that that part of comb you placed there wasn't on the right direction. If the cells are not at the right direction they don't do anything to it. They cut the wax and rebuild it.
Thanks Chris, very helpful. Hadn't thought of that.
Interesting….given they didn’t draw cells on your test frame my thinking would be there must be a queen in there. Perhaps delayed mating due to the weather being poor until recently?
Thanks David. Had a good look for a queen but could not see her, but perhaps I did miss her. I will check the frame in a few days to see if that gives an answer. Or perhaps the nuc is just a bit too small and now a bit old to be viable. Hope it's not too hot where you are today.
@@eastsussexbeesandwildlife5801 I did read that you really need a reasonable size hive to draw decent queen cells so I suppose the size of the nuc may be a contributing factor as you say. I’m surprised they didn’t even try to draw some though. Weather here is great…bees busy on the bramble, clover and especially the lime which has just started to flower
@@davidianoliver thanks David. Hope you manage to get some honey soon! My attempts at nucs are a bit experimental, suppose it would be easier just to buy in a mated queen or two, but I enjoy trying things for myself, even if they do fail!