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Do I have a "Drone Layer Queen"? Please help me!

3K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  micheBkeeper 
#1 · (Edited)
I am a newbie bee keeper and I am hoping you can help me.

A month ago my purchased hive appeared to be doing great. Unfortunately, I used a bee keeping video and did not take bee keeping classes. As a result of the poor example given in my video, I failed to recognize and squash queen cells. This went on for about 2 months. I think as a result, a new queen hatched and my purchased queen swarmed with most of my hive.

Right before I purchased my emergency queen (from the same company I bought my hive from) my hive was completely changed, and according to YouTube videos and many websites, I had all the signs of a queen less hive. I also looked for a queen for 2 days straight and was unable to find one.

I ordered a new queen, which was overnighted, paid $1 for a yellow dot to ID her, which arrived safely.

I checked on the hive a few days later and was unable to find the queen (the queen box was empty) and did not see any signs of queen egg laying. Good news, the random egg laying (sign of a queen less hive) had stopped. There were queen cells which I smushed. So I checked the hive again 2 days later and definitely saw a queen. The problem was she didn't have too many attendants, there was no yellow spot, and still no larvae, I could not identify any capped eggs. Good news, I saw dark layers inside comb towards the bottom of the comb sheet in a circle pattern, I assumed this was the prep for the queen laying her eggs. Also, no random egg laying. Also, more queen cells which I smushed. I contacted the company that I bought the queen from and they did say sometimes the bees remove the yellow paint from the queen.

I am suspicious that the purchased queen was not accepted and that instead a virgin queen from one of my un-squashed cells was running the roost.

I checked on the hive today [now 14 days after I placed the new queen] and saw good signs. A louder hive, more bees, the bees were more aggressive when I was inspecting the hive, there were bees coming in with pollen (though fewer than I'd like to see). There were larvae on all comb sheets except for 2, and in a circle pattern. I did not see a queen. The only thing that troubled me was I still saw a ton of drones, and lots of capped eggs appeared to be drones. There were lots of queen cells, which I smushed. One of them had a queen larvae with royal jelly in it; and another two had no larvae but were filled with royal jelly. This has never happened to me before, all queen cells I previously smushed were empty.

After I put everything back together and went inside, I went online to research my "drone issue". I know that bees can live for 6 weeks, so not all my drones laid by the female bees during the queen less period are died off. But, I learned of the possibility that my possible "virgin queen" may have not successfully mated, and is a quote "drone layer". If that is the case, then I may have doomed my hive by squashing the queen cell that already had a queen growing in it.

Since I am a newbie bee keeper I am uncertain that I am identifying brood / larvae correctly. I went back to the hive to take a picture, which I am posting, I am hoping you can help me out and tell me if these are signs of a "drone layer queen", and if so, should I try to wait another week and see if the hive lays another queen in a cell, and this time, leave it alone, so a new queen can replace my virgin?
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#3 ·
Welcome MB!
The first problem is you are checking too soon and too often after introducing a new queen. They probably rejected the one you offered.
The second is bees may remove a marking but not in a couple days. A knowlegeable queen rearer would know that unless they also know they are not marking well.
The last point, which some will disagree with, you are fighting nature/survival. If the hive keeps making queen cells, and they are not on the edges of the frame, they are trying to tell you your queens are crap. Nurse bees generate queen cells when queen pheromone is low/poor. It is low/poor because the queen is poor also.
 
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