Need new queen. What to do?

[Quint Randle]

I haven't posted in while. I'm in Utah. I have a hive that's about 30 miles from me so I don't check it as often or as deep as I should.

I pulled one super full of honey at the beginning of July and everything seemed to be doing well.

Today, I finally checked it again, lots and lots of bees, strong hive -- and I looked on every frame in the 2-deep-brood, 2-super hive and there are no new eggs. There were older good brood patterns of capped and developing brood, but I would guess there hasn't been any laying in about a week or so. I spent about 20 minutes going through it frame by frame, etc. The queen is either gone or has shut down. I might have seen one or two eggs, but my eyes may have been fooling me. I know what a "spotty pattern" looks like, and there was not even any of that.

I obviously need to order a new queen, but my question is how hard to I need to look for the old queen when it's pretty obvious there isn't one?

Will they be able to build up enough before winter comes?



Quint

[Aisha]

Maybe some beek around you would sell you a nuc with a queen. That's how I started my hive.

[moonlightbeekeeper]

were there any supercedure cells in the hive?can you put a frame from another hive that has eggs (under three days old. [Without the accompaning bees]) in that hive then check it in a week or so if they start a queen cell the hive is probably queenless and you should order a queen right away if not then you dont waste your money. Out of 50+ hives I go through I may find about 1/3 that the queens dont run and hide

[tecumseh]

are conditions such that you might suspect a good queen would have shut down for the season? on a strong hive and in a season where the nectar is limited my thinking is always that a hive is limiting a queens egg laying (especially if I see no queen cells present in the brood area).

I would look again in two weeks and see if their are any positive signs of a queen on board. by that time if the hive is in fact queenless or queenright, then the hives personality will likely display itself as soon as you pop the lid (ie.. extremely queenless bees also tend to be quite jumpy and hostile).

[Quint Randle]

<<<<were there any supercedure cells in the hive?can you put a frame from another hive that has eggs (under three days old. [Without the accompaning bees])>>>>

I think there was one. I've been in this situation before where I knew a hive was queenless and there were many, many supercedure cells. And I've placed a frames from other hives with eggs in them in situations before, but a) this hive is by itself 30 miles from my other two hives. Can I transport them that far in 80-90 degree weather? and b) is it too late in the season for them to raise a new queen and then have her build up the colony for winter?

<<<<are conditions such that you might suspect a good queen would have shut down for the season? on a strong hive and in a season where the nectar is limited my thinking is always that a hive is limiting a queens egg laying (especially if I see no queen cells present in the brood area).>>>>>

This could be the case. It's been a tough year in Utah. It's been very hot with little or no rain (there was some the last 10 days). The local bee supply company was surprised I got any honey at all. Yes, things are "dearth-like" in the area. But if I wait another two weeks then I'm into the third week of August. They did seem ornery to me. But yet, I hadn't dug all the to the bottom of a hive in a while.

I guess the smart thing to do would be to place a frame in from another hive, but my question is will they eggs survive.

Good questions above, but I'm still stuck in the middle. It makes things a lot harder when your hives are so far away.

Quint

[moonlightbeekeeper]

would be a good idea to have more than one hive at every yard. the larvae should bee ok if you can keep it vertical for the ride. if it is going to be rough they may slide around in their cells and fall out. rides make me nervous, trying to keep things right for the little ones

[Quint Randle]

I agree. And this is the case I usually do. What happened here was I took the hive up to a friend's for pollination and ended up keeping it there cause the state is spraying for Japanese Beetle near my "home yard."

Q

[tecumseh]

quint sezs:
I guess the smart thing to do would be to place a frame in from another hive, but my question is will they eggs survive.

tecumseh replies:
the eggs are quite hardy.. if I was transporting the frame of eggs and larvae some distance I would likely cover with a wet cloth in hot weather just to provide a bit of humidity.

even on 'most' hive that are profoundly queenless you will see the girls attept to draw queencell at some highly unlikely places like cells of pollen and such... of course some hives seem incapable of replicating the queen.

from the general area wide conditions you describe (dearth) I suspect the queens laying has simply been terminated for a period of time.