Queenless hives

[brooksbeefarm]

Seems like every year about this time {aug. sometimes June}I see a hive with little activity,to find them queenless?Most of the time they are superseding,but sometimes like today I found 2 hives queenless with know eggs,larva or brood?These were strong hives with 2 capped med. suppers and one med. they had been working on but had lost interest in. Their work force was dying off.I will put 2 or 3 frames of brood.one with eggs in tomorrow,this usally takes care of it.My question is,what could happen to the queen,and how come they didn!t take a egg and start another queen if she just up and died?These were strong hives and I haven!t been in them for over a month,when a flow is on I let them make honey.My record shows that I found the queen in both hives the last time I inspected them and I am very careful about where she is when I put the hive back together.I!m sure some of you have had this happen.Does anybody have an idea what is going on?

[RayMarler]

Yes, it happens to me sometimes, usually in the fall, and I don't know what the problem is or what causes it. It happens with clean (no excessive mites or infections) strong hives during the summer, then in the fall they dwindle and queen is gone.

[Eaglerock]

I had that almost every year back in the 60-70's with one to three depending on how many hives I had going I guess. Anyways, all I could come up with is the the girls never made queen cells for her to lay in before she up and moved out. I think she just packed her bags and left. Seemed all I had left was new bees and a few that were out working... sometimes they didn't have a worker laying yet, but I think they would have. Usually mine were the strongest of my hives. Which make me think swarming.

[rriley]

What did you do to fix it?

[RayMarler]

What did you do to fix it?

I did one of two things...

ReQueen or Join with another queenright hive.

[rriley]

I caught a couple swarms a few weeks ago and checked them about a week after they were caught and thought I had the queen because I saw eggs in the cells. Last week when I was in them there were multiple eggs in the cells so i think I have a laying worker

[rriley]

So my plan tomorrow is to combine them with a couple other strong hives I have to hopefully give them enough numbers to get through winter and then try and do splits next spring.

[Julian Lewis]

We listened to a talk the other day by Dr Dewey Caron. One of the things that stuck with me was that in one of his studies they found that 20% of the colonies actually had two queens in them. After all he said, once you find one queen, how many of you keep on looking for a second.
Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that I have wondered before when you get a situation as described, if the presence of the second queen can effect their behavior. If for some reason the new queen perishes, or leaves, the old queens presence gives the colony the impression that they are still queenright and they miss the opportunity to raise another new queen while there are eggs and fresh brood. That leaves the colony with an old queen that either is not laying or about to die, and hence your queenless colony ensues.

[Eaglerock]

What did you do to fix it?

Queen or combine... however I never used the newspaper I just used a queen excluder, just in case I missed her. That has happened too. Sometimes I have found she will start laying and in the spring I will split... If it was a june thing and I find her laying in the summer I did the split then...

[brooksbeefarm]

It could of been swarming?I don!t think it is varroa mites,I didn!t see any sign of them.This brings up another question,do the worker bees keep varroa and tracheal mites off the queen when they feed and groom her?If tracheal mites are microscopic,the workers may not be able to see them?I!ve never heard or read this question before,but was wondering if this could be one reason?A person who ask questions is only ignorant for a moment,a person who don!t ask questions is ignorant forever.Thanks for your replies.

[riverrat]

It could of been swarming?I don!t think it is varroa mites,I didn!t see any sign of them.This brings up another question,do the worker bees keep varroa and tracheal mites off the queen when they feed and groom her?If tracheal mites are microscopic,the workers may not be able to see them?I!ve never heard or read this question before,but was wondering if this could be one reason?A person who ask questions is only ignorant for a moment,a person who don!t ask questions is ignorant forever.Thanks for your replies.

They wont groom a tracheal mite they are an internal parasite.

[BEES4U]

Low on bees.
Order some earlier 2008 queens and make up a few nucs so that you can unite them with the failing queens.
The best way to prevent the failing queen problem is to re-queen annualy!
The queen is a small cost for what you have invested in the hive.
Some bee operations are re-queened twice a year!
Good Luck,
Ernie Lucas Apiaries.

[Tom G. Laury]

Those weak ones are just a liability, they take time, feed, queens,etc. and give nothing in return, a lot of them still don't make it. Healthy colonies require less input and almost take care of themselves. This time of year especially the main value is in the feed and the combs. I prefer to shake and store to protect from robbing, moth, and refill with bees the next active season.

It's unrealistic to expect 100% with queens, whether you raise or buy. 60 days after putting in 100, you can expect to need 15 replacements. If you are not weeding them out all the time, a certain percent will dwindle and eventually die. I see this as normal.

[dcross]

They wont groom a tracheal mite they are an internal parasite.

But when they transfer to the younger bees...

[brooksbeefarm]

riverrat,I!m not trying to be a smartaleck.but doesn!t atracheal mite have to get on a bee before it becomes internal?Where are they before they attach to the bee?

[riverrat]

They are external on a bee a very short time before the enter the new host bee trachea. unlike a varroa that is an external parasite. I guess it would be possible for them to groom a tracheal mite but my guess is it is highly unlikely.

http://maarec.psu.edu/pdfs/TRACHEAL.PDF