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Lost queen

2K views 1 reply 1 participant last post by  Dee A. Lusby 
G
#1 ·
My first year. Got two nucs in may and one is doing great. I just added the second honey super on top of the two hive bodies. The other colony is no more then 1/3 drawn on the second hive body frames. Until this week,the last time I got into the brood was on June 30. Could not see any eggs, some larve and a good quantity of capped brood including capped drone cells. I also noticed a couple of queen cells. I decided to leave things alone and observed what seamed to be an increasing number of bees foraging and drawing comb the last few weeks. This last Saturday while doing an external inspection of the hives, I noticed a large number of drones coming and going from the hive but not on Sunday. Yesterday I got into the brood chamber and could not find any eggs, larve and very few capped cells most of which were drone cells. It was late in the day (after work) and I didn't take the time for a hard search for a queen. Anybody have any ideas what is going on? Has the original queen been superseeded? Should I expect to see eggs and larve soon, or is this colony history? There is still a good number of bees in the hive.
 
#2 ·
Dave

You wrote:
Yesterday I got into the brood chamber and could not find any eggs, larve and very few capped cells most of which were drone cells. It was late in the day (after work) and I didn't take the time for a hard search for a queen. Anybody have any ideas what is going on?

Reply:
I would say you are now queenless.

You also wrote:
Has the original queen been superseeded? Should I expect to see eggs and larve soon, or is this colony history?

reply:
30 June until now? I would say you need to put a few frames of fresh brood with accompanying bees into the colony to restart it. But they will also need to rear another queen, or you can order a new queen and then when she arrives put in with accompanying frames of brood and attached bees and restart.

You further wrote:
There is still a good number of bees in the hive.

Reply:
See above and choice what you are most comfortable with.

Regards,

Dee A. Lusby
 
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