Murdered Queens

[maverick]

hello:
three weeks ago I captured a swarm. I killed the queen, and introduced an All-star queen from Draper. a week later I checked there was no queen . I assumed that they killed her.
I ordered an all-American queen from R weaver. on Thursday may 18th my queen arrived. I added three frames with new laid eggs . and introduced the queen in her cage. on sunday afternoon I noticed an unusual behavior at the entrance. they just murdered the second queen.
I was going to order a different queen, but want to have someone else's advise.
do you guys have an opinion on what the hay is going on? if there is no hope, I was thinking of placing a newspaper and combining this hive with a second.
what do you guys think.

[AndrewSchwab]

:D

[ May 22, 2006, 08:15 PM: Message edited by: AndrewSchwab ]

[AndrewSchwab]

I would combine it. Some hives just don't take a queen. I will give them 2 strikes then they're OUT.

Really think about it. DO YOU WANT TO GIVE THEM A 3rd QUEEN TO KILL.

I am assuming you have checked for queen cells already started?

[Rob Mountain]

Make sure that you don’t have laying workers.

Look for multiple eggs in cells.

[Rob Mountain]

[ May 22, 2006, 08:41 PM: Message edited by: Rob Mountain ]

[power napper]

Maveric--You stated that you added a couple frames of newly layed eggs. By chance did you brush off the attending bees before you put these frames into your troublesome hive?
The reason I ask is that all you have is old bees in the hive, they could not take care of brood.

[Michael Bush]

>three weeks ago I captured a swarm. I killed the queen, and introduced an All-star queen from Draper. a week later I checked there was no queen .

Are you sure?

> I assumed that they killed her.
I ordered an all-American queen from R weaver. on Thursday may 18th my queen arrived. I added three frames with new laid eggs . and introduced the queen in her cage. on sunday afternoon I noticed an unusual behavior at the entrance. they just murdered the second queen.

My guess is there was more than one queen and at least one was unmated. It will take about two weeks for her to mate and another week before she'll be laying very much. So she's probably just starting to lay now.

>I was going to order a different queen, but want to have someone else's advise.
do you guys have an opinion on what the hay is going on?

They probably have a queen already.

> if there is no hope, I was thinking of placing a newspaper and combining this hive with a second.
what do you guys think.

Give them some brood and see what they do. If they don't start a queen cell, they probably have a queen. My guess is you'll start seeing eggs just about now.

Why did you kill the first queen?

[maverick]

>> Make sure that you don't have laying workers.
I'm sure non have laid anything.

>> By chance did you brush off the attending bees before you put these frames into your troublesome hive?
sadly I have to admit that I have brushed off most of the bees on the added frames


as for if I was sure If the swarm queen was killed . I'm 100% sure there were no queens, however there were several queen cells. I removed them all

>>Why did you kill the first queen?
the swarm was a bit too aggressive for me. I also wanted to give the All-star a try. I heard great things about them.

so much for that.

[chillardbee]

if you have extra hives to draw from you could always make a nuc and intro a queen to it once it is established then you can place it where the swarm is setting and shake the swarm out about 10 feet away in front (just incase there are laying workers) and spray them with a little sugar syrup.