Double swarm, now no queen after 2 weeks

[tommalia]

My uncle-in-law (what do you call you're wife's uncle anyway) has in interesting situation:

He's got a colony that he started from box last spring. It wintered over well and then swarmed about 3 weeks ago.... then it swarmed again just about 3 or 4 days later. We managed to catch both Swarms and they appear to be doing OK. However, he just inspected the original colony for the first time since the swarms and here's where we get into the problem.

He's now got two deeps and two supers that are all basically honey bound. He's got two queen cups unhatched and NO brood what so ever!:eek:

Any one ever had such an experience and/or anyone have any suggestions about what to do? That hive has now been without a queen for probably 2 weeks. It LOOKS really strong, but obviously wont be for long at this rate.

My thinking was he should just cut the two Queen cups out of the original colony, then take the brood box that has the first swarm in it with that queen and stack the original colony brood boxes on top of that and hope that the old colony accepts the queen from the swarm. My uncle-in-law thinks that this would more than likely result in the bees from the original colony just killing the queen from the swarm colony.

What to do, what to do, what to do?:s

[jdpro5010]

I would take a frame of eggs from another colony and add it to the queenless colony. This way if they are queenless they will make a new queen themselves from the brood you added, if by some chance they have a virgin queen who was delayed in mating there will be no harm done. This way you kinda let the bees do what they want.

[Michael Bush]

I'd do the frame of eggs and brood, but I also wouldn't be surprised to find a laying queen in that hive in a couple of days or so. Two weeks is about the amount of time for a virgin to harden and mate and start to lay.

[Tim B]

I have seen them swarm leaving no queens at all. It is also possible that the queen never made it back from her mating excursion. Another possibility is that there is a queen who has not started laying yet. Not all queen cells are the same age. I have seen a week or more difference in cell age. I have seen situations where the first round of newly hatched queens sort themselves out but somehow fail to remove an unhatched younger cell. Several days pass, the younger queen emerges and kills her. Now she has to mate so laying may be delayed a week longer than expected. All that to say, if it were my hive, I'd add a frame of brood with eggs. I had to do that to one of mine yesterday. If they are drawing cells next time I check I'll requeen them with a nuc.

[Michael Bush]

All the things Tim lists are possibilities, which is why the best insurance is a frame of eggs and open brood. It's also possible that there is a virgin queen.