Raising an emergency queen

[Tim H]

I have 2 hives. 2 days ago when I was in the first hive, I didn't see any brood. Have a few capped cells, but no brood. 9 days ago when I was in this hive, I must have seen some brood because I don't remember being concerned. So something has happened to the queen. Hive population seems pretty good for this time of year - between 3 and 4 frames of bees - a little less than the second hive which is queenright.

Here's what I did, and wondering if I did the right thing: I took a frame from the second hive that had a good mix of capped brood down to day-old brood (probably some eggs too, but couldn't tell for sure), brushed off the nurse bees and placed in the first hive. I'm hoping that the first hive will kick in and make a queen on this frame.

In your experience, do I have a hope here, or is it time to order a queen?

[Joel]

Tim, being anything but certain about the age of added brood could be a problem as an emergency queen raised from a 4 day old larvae (egg + 2 days) will be inferior and affect you whole season. I like to have some eggs if I do this to be certain the bees have a chance to pick out and start a queen with appropriate age brood.

You didn't say you looked for the queen but I am assuming you did. A break in brood due to the recent cold spell may not be unusual and you could have overlooked her, it happens. I would check and see if they have started queen cells and if not she is probably in there. If they have everthing rides on your confidence that you gave them some eggs or 3 day old larvae.

In genral it is worth it to buy a queen, which may be hard this time of year. A quality, mated queen gives your bees 3 weeks or more of added buildup time and will pay huge rewards in production.

[ March 28, 2006, 05:15 AM: Message edited by: Joel ]

[Michael Bush]

Sometimes they appear queenless becaue they already replaced the old queen and the new one isn't laying yet. Sometimes there's no brood because they are about to swarm. I'd pick up the bottom box and look on the bottom bars for swarm queen cells. Then I'd look in the hive for emergency queen cells. But you did what I would do if you don't know if they are queenless or not. Give them the resources and see what they do. When I was a rookie I made the mistake of buying a queen only to have them kill her because there was a virgin queen that wasn't laying yet.

[Tim H]

Thanks for the info. Cold weather might be factor. We had been very warm for several weeks, but have had a week or so with high's in the 40's. No sign of any queen cells anywhere in the hive. So, the theory is if the workers don't kick in and make a queen cell, then there's probably a queen lurking around somewhere? Is there any concern of not having nurse bees to make food for the brood? Will the older workers make it?

Anyhow, I'll be watching for either brood (proving the queen was there all along), or a queen cell.

[Joel]

A couple of other factors to look at is are the bees acting calm or are they nervous, lound and running when you open the hive which is usually the case with a queenless hive. Are the workers bringing in pollen, a good indicator the hive is queen right.

I think every newbie has made the mistake Michael speaks of requeening a hive with a virgin. If you do decide to requeen, the best choice production wise for a queenless hive, be certain the hive is queenless. As a last point do not release the new queen until you can see the workers are feeding the queen throught the cage (by probiscus) as opposed to biting the cage.