The girls evicted the queen

[beesinger]

I hived this package on March 25, heard some piping around 3-4 weeks but nothing ever came of it. The marked and clipped queen was laying beautifully, wood to wood on 5 frames, with the other frames either full of pollen, and they finally started capping honey 2 weeks ago. The hive was FULL of bees, honey and hatching brood. The queen was still laying in the brood nest. Population exploding. I added a super on May 9, one week ago and left it alone. Today I checked the hive and just happened to find the queen crawling on the ground. I picked her up and returned her to the hive, she was immediately attacked and balled, dragged to the side and pitched overboard.

When I opened the hive, the super was untouched, no comb drawn out, barely any bees in it. I took it off and things looked normal in the bottom box. They hadn't moved up into the super in a whole week. What's up with that? They are spilling out the front door. It doesn't look like they swarmed, there are still lots of bees still in there.

I didn't find the queen until I had closed up the hive and was walking away so I didn't look for another queen. No unusual activity, except they seem content to stay in the bottom box. It poured rain all day yesterday, but the weekend was sunny. I'm not feeding them. Do they need it? I stopped feeding when the horsemint started blooming and they started packing in the honey.

I've got the queen in a queen cage in the kitchen. She looks really thin and tired. What to do?

Beesinger

[Zib]

So this is my first year. I have been taking a class with a bee keeper that clips the wings of his Queens in hopes to give him a few days longer for a swarm. If the bees didn't take the empty box as space and where feeling jammed in the original box could they of wanted to swarm? 2 weeks would be right for a Queen Cell. The original queen tried to leave with the swarm and landed on the ground. Since the queen couldn't keep flying the bees went back to the original hive.

Just my guess on the situation.

Did you happen to see any other swarm cells when in the hive????

[beesinger]

I went back in the hive after about 2 hrs to look for a new queen. Man, are they grumpy. Got stung, first time ever. Didnt find a queen but i dont think i could, soooo many bees! Only got thru 5 of the 8 frames before they came at me with their guns drawn and i had to fall back. Very irritated bees. No queen cells of any kind on the frames i inspected. Could be on the ones further past the broodnest or i didnt recognize them for what they were.

I dont have a mentor to come look at my hive. Maybe they did swarm and i didnt know.

Does that mean there is a new queen mated and ready to lay or should i buy anew queen?

Beesinger

[MrHappy]

I am new also so am just guessing here also, but my bees got really mad when they lost their queen and didn't have any guidance. I have heard that the bees will swarm just before a new queen hatches, but then the new queen has to go mate and won't start laying few a few weeks or so. I just read MBush tell someone that by the time you order a new queen and get her installed the one that prob hatched will be back and laying. I would wait a week and see if there is a queen. If you order anything I'd order a full suit for days like this. I am always happy I got one for day's when they are really mad and I'm safe in there and can keep investigating the problems no matter how mad they get. That's just how I am though.

[Acebird]

Isn't it possible you had a supersedure?

[MattDavey]

They will be grumpy if they don't have a laying queen. It is likely they tried to swarm or supersede and there is a new queen in the hive, she just may not be laying much yet.

You could try putting the queen back in the hive in the cage and see if they feed her, otherwise she will die anyway. If they accept her you could put her above an excluder in the box on top. This may help the hive build up. May not be worth the effort either.

Matthew Davey

[beesinger]

Thanks everybody for helping.

I do have a full bee suit already so wasn't worried about handling the bees. But they got me through my gloves. That surprised me! I think they superceded the original queen or swarmed and she fell on the ground since she's clipped/marked. Doesn't matter anyhow, she died overnight. So I'll wait a week and see what happens. If the move up into the super and draw out the comb, I'll look for eggs/larvae. If there's none I'll get a queen from my original supplier. I can drive over there and back in one day.

Thanks for the advice. Beesinger