Trivia for you... What is wrong with my queens?

[keeper]

So the situation is this...

I have a hive made from a split this past spring which I allowed to raise it's own queen. That was in late April. The hive is the only hive I have at it's current location. It raised a queen and she was mated and began to lay... after she had about 1 frame of brood going they superseded her. So I requeened the hive with a purchased queen and she began to lay... After a week or so they superceded her as well. I allowed them to raise the replacement and she started laying last week.... Now they are superceding her.

The hive is not swarming, just replacing the queens.

What is everyone's thoughts? I will give you mine after I get some input.

[Ben Brewcat]

Populist militant workers: a growing problem ;). Some more information will help... how are they superseding her in a week? Does that mean you're seeing queen cells being drawn with milk and larvae etc? And how does the brood pattern look? If it's shot with drones or otherwise spotty, perhaps you're in an area that just doesn't have a DCA close enough and they can't mate well? Is it possible it's just casting small swarms and afterswarms? Disease: is the colony otherwise apparently healthy? Nosema or other brood diseases could be sabotaging queen development too.

[Greg Lowe]

This has been happening for a long time.

From Dr. C.C. Miller's book FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES (Pgs 191-192):

"Somewhat curiously, it is the common thing, upon opening a hive a week after giving the queen, to find one or more queen-cells started. I don't know why. Perhaps the bees have been frightened because of their spell of queenlessness, and want to provide against its happening again. At any rate, when these cells are killed they are not replaced. Possibly the bees would destroy them themselves after finding that the queen was settled to work. "

[keeper]

What I suspect is what Ben brought up. She is getting matted, but the laying pattern is spotty with lots of drone mixed in. I think the second bought queen was just a fluke and the other two are not getting properly mated. Prior to placing this hive I put out bait traps and had no honey bees visit them. Oddly this is not a remote location, just in town and my closest competition is about 7 miles one way and 5 miles the other..