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  • From: kirsten.bothwell AT gmail.com
  • To: Walter Starks <walterstarks AT icloud.com>
  • Cc: thrhodes AT hotmail.com, ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Missing queen
  • Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2016 10:48:47 -0500

It is quite possible we have a virgin queen. There were some remnants of the
queen cells, one of which had been slashed in the side of the cell. So I
suspect a queen successfully emerged and dispatched with potential
competitors. Since this is our first year as Beekeepers, we're not ace queen
spotters so a virgin queen could easily elude us.

I'm mostly concerned that this is not the optimal time for mating flights and
I don't want to slide into a laying worker situation. Based on Randall's
article it looks like we're still in a "wait and see" period. My guess is the
queen emerged sometime between 2/21 and 2/28.

Maybe we wait 10 more days before donating brood frames?

Thanks again for input. This listserv provides such great support for us
newbies!


Kirsten

> On Mar 10, 2016, at 10:21 AM, Walter Starks <walterstarks AT icloud.com> wrote:
>
> Are you sure you don't have a virgin queen. When you say the queen cells
> were gone, do you mean that the bees had torn them down completely, or just
> that they were empty? If the queen cells were open its very possible that
> you might have a queen in the hive that hasn't started laying yet. She
> would be very small and fast and might be hard to find.
>
> You can try pulling a frame of eggs from another hive and see what the bees
> do with it. Make sure you don't get the queen though.
>
> ______
>
> Walter
>
>
>
>
> You never can tell with bees. ~ Winnie-the-Pooh
>
>> On Mar 10, 2016, at 9:44 AM, kirsten.bothwell AT gmail.com wrote:
>>
>> We have a similar situation with one of our hives. On Sun Feb 21 we opened
>> the hive and found several supersedure cells and a scattering of capped
>> brood.
>>
>> The next Sunday, we went in and found no queen cells, no capped brood and
>> lots of hot bees.
>>
>> This past Sunday, we didn't see any signs of eggs or larvae although we
>> only looked in the top deep.
>>
>> Given the off/on weather and probable shortage of drones, I'm wondering
>> how long we should wait before acting on this situation. I'm also
>> wondering if it's too late to place a frame of brood and eggs from another
>> hive. How long do we have before the dread laying workers show up?
>>
>> Thanks in advance!
>>
>> Kirsten
>>
>>> On Mar 9, 2016, at 5:39 PM, Walter Starks <walterstarks AT icloud.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> You won't be able to introduce a new queen. The bees have already
>>> accepted the laying worker as their new queen. IMO the easiest way to
>>> solve this problem is to combine the hive with the laying worker with
>>> your queen right hive. You can always split them later in the season once
>>> new queens are available or they can make their own. The laying workers
>>> will die off in a few weeks.
>>>
>>> ______
>>>
>>> Walter
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> You never can tell with bees. ~ Winnie-the-Pooh
>>>
>>>> On Mar 8, 2016, at 2:30 PM, thrhodes AT hotmail.com wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I checked my three hives at the end of February when we had a couple
>>>> warm days. As expected, one hive was completely dead as evidenced by
>>>> the carnage from robbing out front. One hive looked really good and
>>>> strong with a good brood pattern and sufficient resources. I flipped the
>>>> brood box to the bottom and then looked at the third hive. When I
>>>> opened up the hive and started looking, I immediately knew something was
>>>> wrong. I have what to me looks like a classic laying worker situation.
>>>> The "brood" is spotty, all drone in length, no apparent queen cells, no
>>>> brood pattern characteristic of the good hive, and no queen that I could
>>>> see. I took what frames of honey were left in the dead hive and put it
>>>> in this one. Perhaps throwing good resources at a lost cause, but then
>>>> I wasn't sure since I'd never had this happen before.
>>>>
>>>> Just to be sure, I gave it some time and rechecked today. No change for
>>>> the better and if anything that laying worker has really kicked it up.
>>>> Resources are down, but there are still a good amount of worker bees and
>>>> some resources left.
>>>>
>>>> At this point, what's the best option? In an active laying worker
>>>> situation, would introducing a queen work if I can get one or are they
>>>> just likely to kill it off. I'm leaning toward just taking a frame or
>>>> two of brood from my other hive and seeing if they will draw out some
>>>> queen cells from it and hopefully get queen-right. I could also briefly
>>>> newspaper combine the two hives into one as well and split later, but if
>>>> there is any chance I can save it separately, that would be ideal.
>>>> Thoughts?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Haywood
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