Need help with a situation

[GatorBeeGal]

About 10 days ago my (only) hive was queenless, weak, and infested with SHB and wax moth larvae. My mentor brought a 5 frame nuc with queen, and combined that into a new hive with my remaining bees. The other day we moved the hive to a location that receives a lot more sun, and did an inspection. There was no sign of the queen, and absolutely no eggs or brood. There were a lot of bees, but they had filled a lot of the brood nest with nectar and pollen. There were a lot of empty cells still, and probably 4 or 5 queen cups. The good news is that there was no sign of SHB or wax moth larvae. My question is, how do I know if there is a queen in there? Are there eggs or larvae in the queen cups (I didn't think to actually look in them - duh :doh:) The cups are in the middle of the frames, like supercedure cells. I don't know which happened first - the bees put nectar and pollen in the brood nest so the queen doesn't have much room to lay, or I lost my queen and the bees filled the empty brood nest with nectar and pollen. Wouldn't the queen lay in any available cell if she were there? There were lots of eggs and brood in the 5 frames that my mentor gave me 10 days ago. I'm not sure what to do. I don't have another hive I can take brood from. Should I order a new queen? There are still a few undrawn frames in the hive - should I move the empty frames into the middle and see if they will draw comb for the queen to lay in, assuming she's there? As far as the queen cups are concerned, how long would it take the bees to finish building and capping them? Thanks for any advice, I'm at a total loss!

[devdog108]

Did he bring a virgin queen over? Did he help you look for the queen. If you have SC cells, I would say they may have offed her like they did in mine. I would say take a deep breathe and just watch and pay attention. I would check the queen cups for larvae and such and give it a week or so and go back and look again.....jmtcw

[GatorBeeGal]

You know, I don't know if she was a virgin. I had assumed she was mated and laying since he brought frames of brood and eggs, but I didn't ask if she had layed them. We both looked for the queen and eggs, and couldn't find her / them. I guess I will go back in the hive and look for larvae in the queen cups tomorrow. I definitely will have at least 2 hives next year, as having only 1 has been nothing but frustrating, to say the least! An old timer beek told me, "If you want 1 hive, you have to have 3." I believe him now :)

[beyondthesidewalks]

Bees bringing in pollen is always a good sign to me. They don't do that unless there's hope and hope equals a queen. Did you put the nuc frames in a larger hive body or did you leave it a nuc? If you left it a nuc I'd put them in a larger box and let them build some more room. If they're already in a larger box with more frames have they built out the new frames?

At this point if they are still flying and bringin in stores I'd give them up to a week and check them again. I'll bet you're either going to find brood and your queen or full queen cells. Either way you'll be in business. Worst case you'll need to get a queen.

BTW, I don't think that wax moths kill a hive. They only take over a hive when something else weakens it to the point where it cannot fight off the moths. They're kind of like buzzards for beehives. Buzzards don't kill the roadkill they just clean it up by eating it.

[GatorBeeGal]

We put the bees in a 10 frame deep. Being a newbee, I still haven't developed the habit of paying attention to and remembering EVERYTHING lol, so I can't remember now how many frames were undrawn. I know there were at least a few. My mentor did not say anything about putting on a super, but I will remember to check that next time I open the hive. I should probably bring a checklist with me :p


If you have SC cells, I would say they may have offed her like they did in mine.

devdog, I just re-read your post and this caught my attention. Holy cow! Do they do that before they have a new queen made?!!!!! Seems risky, although I'm sure they know what they're doing. Bees are so darn fascinating!

[devdog108]

One day I had a queen with clipped wings, the next day she was completely gone....the only problem was they didnt have any brood to raise another......

Hey Gator, I started taking a logbook and camera with me everytime I go see my girls. I went looking for certain things, like Larvae..I missed an ENTIRE frame just because I had no idea what i was looking for....They know what they are doing, and I plan on letting mine do what they do best...be bees...lol