Looks like my hive requeened itself, leave it or replace

[Sid from Texas]

Had a non-laying queen, the hive was not thriving. Obtained a new queen, removed the old one. But the bees never ate the beecandy to release the queen. After a while, I pried the the cage off, but all bees inside were dead. Hive seemed to be thriving, which I thought was from the new queen.

Today going through the frames, I found a queen. They must have requeened themselves, and I missed it. I wonder if they killed the queen I got from Beeweaver before it was released.

Now I have a new queen, but unsure of genetics. I live in South Texas, we have AHB here. I have seen feral bees before I got these hives.

Should I remove the queen and try again to requeen???

Is there any advantage to leaving the one I have??? Did not see any eggs, today, but I have a hard time with seeing them anyway.

[Oldtimer]

Your info is confusing because you say you wonder if the killed the new queen before it was released, but elsewhere you say they did not eat the candy to release it.

There is also no time frames given so it's just not possible to know where your current queen came from, or wether it's mated.

So the best guess I could give would be leave the current queen 3 weeks. If she is still not laying eggs then she never will. Do you have other hives you could transfer brood from?

[fish_stix]

Try this; patience! Give them some time and see what happens.

[Sid from Texas]

Sorry Oldtimer, trying to keep it short;

Bought two nucs 4 weeks ago( April 10th), hived them and after two weeks realized one hive was thriving, the other was not. Saw no eggs, no growing brood in one hive the other was thriving. It was interesting to see the difference. They had an identifiable queen, but were not bringing in pollen, not feeding on the sugar syrup.

I called Beeweaver, who replaced the queen. They sent it Tuesday but I did not get it in, the hive for several days. Did not remove the cork (forgot about it) for 2 days. Realized I needed to pry off the cork on Saturday. By Friday, the bees had never eaten through the candy, the bees inside the cage were dead. But the hive had begun to thrive. They were collecting pollen, eating the sugar syrup, flying about outside of the hive. They were acting like the other hive.

Today I went throught the hive (2 days after finding the queen dead). I had posted earlier that it looked like the bees were attacking the queen, before I found her dead. Today I found an unmarked, unclipped queen. Looks to me like the hive raised its own queen.

I have seen feral bees in the area. My concern is that since the queen raised by the hive seems to have a positive effect on the hive, should I leave her or requeen with a commercial one from Beeweaver. We are in South Texas, and have AHB. Worried the new queen may have mated with a feral, possibly africanized drone. Plus I paid a lot to get bees from Beeweaver, because they have mite resistant bees, and controlled genetics.

[sqkcrk]

Seems like the possibilities of an AHB queen are pretty high, so I would think requeening w/ known stock would be a good idea.