Hollow Queen?

[chemistbert]

The history is. I set up my KTBH this spring with a feral swarm from Lisbon OH. They were doing very well and drawing comb without much interference from me. Queen was laying well and so forth. Last week I decided to put some syrup into them. While poking around I noticed a swarm cell on the last drawn frame from the entrance. I decided to think about what to do about it for a day and forgot altogether. I opend the hive yesterday and the cell was still capped and I saw larva so I cut the cell out. Now they were a little more agressive than my others but that might have been the weather. I disected the swarm cell and found a fully formed (dead) queen. I went to squish her and she was empty, no gooey filling. What gives? Do I have a disease? Help please. Thanks.

[Keith Benson]

She was prolly dead in cell and just not yet removed by the mortuary crew. As to her being hollow: Most dessicated insects turn out this way. They innards are mostly water, and when they dry up, the chitin exoskeleton will appear as a hollow shell.

Is there disease in your hive? Maybe, the above is not diagnostic for a particular one per se. The presence of larvae, and therefore a laying queen suggests things are OK.

Keith

[chemistbert]

Just an update. Yesterday I came to the conclusion that my KTBH has been queenless for a good bit. I went to my brothers and got a frame of larva and eggs and put them in my hive. Is there anything else I can do to help this hive. There are true feral survivors. The eggs I got are from the same line and I want to maintain this heritage. Thanks