Well that all depends on where she landed....did she go into the hive box or away?

 

why did you remove the cork, i thought you were supposed to let the cork stay in while the hive builds up shop and let the workers chew her out....

but then again what do i know never haveing had bees before.

 

you replace the cork with a marshmallow
the bees are still here 2 days later, if they didn't swarm after her does that mean she should be in there?

 

As I understand you are not supposed to remove the plug...it's supposed to be made of candy so they will eat their way to it. Bees take time to acclimate to a new queen, if she is released too soon they may kill her.
2 days later is not enough time to be able to tell I'd think..lack of queen will do one of 2 things..the hive will either riase up a new queen or die.

 

Some queen cages come without candy.

http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/BegMethods.html

"An alternative is to directly release the queen. To direct release a queen, first sprinkle a little syrup on the queen through the queen cage screen. Next, lower the queen cage into the hive close to one of the exposed combs. Remove the screen with your hive tool and let the queen crawl onto the comb or among the bees. Carefully replace the previously removed combs to avoid injuring the bees and the queen. Replace the inner and outer covers"


If she flies when you release her, your best bet is to leave the cover off the hive for a while so she can follow the scent back. Worked for me on the one that took off this year

 

Also it is a good idea to remain standing where you are for several minutes if a queen flies during install. When she took off she is going to orient on the largest object to help find her way back. Typically YOU are the largest object. As to a colony making a replacement queen, that can only happen if the colony has the means (eggs/larvae) to make a queen from. A new package has neither of these. I'd give it a couple of days and look for either the queen herself or evidence (eggs/larvae). If you have another hive, you can take a frame of eggs from it and install in this hive- check back in three-five days and see if they have started any queen cells. TO many variables and my guess would be just that....a guess.

Good luck,
David

 

i was pretty sure they couldn't make a new queen without one in the first place. should i not wait the week and do my first inspection early, so that if she is not there i could order a new queen to replace her?

 

I guess it would depend on what they were started on. If started on some drawn comb or one of the fully drawn plastic frames she could begin laying quickly. If they were started on foundation, they will have to draw out some cells for her to lay in. Sometimes a colony can draw out a full frame in a couple of days if they need it. As an example, I hived a feral swarm a week ago and in 9 days they have drawn 9 complete frames (NO foundation/starter strips etc.., just their own wax and one partially drawn frame for a starter). If it will give you some piece of mind, take a quick peek at the center frame..... Still wouldn't count her as gone until a good week had passed as it can take a coupld of days for her to simply settle down and get to work. A downside you should be aware of, a colony just starting out can be a little jumpy.....Since they haven't established your box as their home, too much disturbance could prompt the whole colony to abscond. One thing you can do right now- observe the activity at the hive entrance for bees with loaded pollen baskets. Pollen baskets (while not a sure bet) are a good indication that they either have brood or they are expecting brood soon. Remember, bees are bugs and don't spend alot of time reading the books that tell them what they are supposed to do.