MAQS Checkback - Potential Queenless

[chrisd4421]

Hi all,
I dont post much and I am in the middle of freaking out. I have 3 hives and 7 days ago I applied MAQS. Today I pulled the strips and did a quick review of each hive:

• 1st hive is strong - good brood pattern (1st year hive)
• 2nd is OK - average to below average amount of brood in an OK pattern (2nd year hive)
• 3rd hive is where I have my concern (2nd year hive)

There is only about 20 cells of brood in total across 2 frames. The overall hive numbers are lower than 7 days ago and the activity at the entrace is very low. The bees that are foraging are brinign in pollen and nectar but at a slower rate than the other two hives. If I were any good at finding the queen, I would have taken the time to find her. I believe she may noit have survived.

What do I do? Do I wait a few days and then re-check before I do anything else? Do I move 2 frames of day-old from the strong hive? Do I immediately purchase another queen and introduce her?

Thanks for allowing a space for my freak-out
Chris in NJ

[westernbeekeeper]

I would either move a frame of eggs and you larva to the problem hive, or purchase and introduce a new queen immediately. Depends on what you want to save: time or money.

[WWW]

Chris, when Maqs first came onto the market there was a good many people reporting queen mortality after its use. Adding a frame of brood from a stronger hive as Benjamin suggested would be a good start to helping the weaker one, that way if they start making queen cells you will know that you have a missing or damaged queen and help prevent a laying worker problem from starting, however if she has been missing for a while you may already have a laying worker problem so you should do a close frame by frame inspection of this hive to look for the queen and see what kind of condition she is in and also look for laying worker eggs which will be layed onto the sides of the cells and often have multiple eggs in the same cells, is there capped cells present - worker or drone. If your queen is still alive and laying she will lay eggs in the center of the bottom of the cell and they will be standing up. If you purchase a new queen at this point and place her in a laying worker hive they will just kill her because they think there is already a queen in the hive.....At this juncture you need to know more about the condition of your hive and their queen to be able to take the proper corrective action, we are here to help so please let us know what you find......Bill

[chrisd4421]

Thanks for the advise. I will probably go back in today and take a closer look. Any advise or techniques to increase my chances of locating the queen if she is indeed still in there?
\
Chris

[WWW]

Chris, finding queens becomes easier with more time spent in the hives, some of things we can do to make finding her easier is to look around the edges of a frame first and then work your way toward the center in a circular pattern, she will stand out form the other bees because she has a longer abdomine and an old mans hump on her thorax where the wings connect and often but not always she will have a circle of workers around her facing inward. When you get to be familiar with your queen you will know what color she is and this will help speed up finding her as well. One other thing, queens do not like smoke and will run from it so only use just a few puffs across the frame tops and do not blow it down into the frames, when to much smoke is used they will run making it almost impossible to find them and they will even go off the frames and cling to the inside of the box.

When you do find her, give her a thorough inspection looking for defects like injured legs or shredded wings which has been reported buy others who have used MAQs. If she is in bad condition then a new queen would be in order as Benjamin suggested.

If she is in good condition and you still are thinking about replacing her you have to take into consideration the drought we have been which perhaps caused her to cut back on egg production. In this case it might be best to start feeding them 1:1 syrup and see if this stimulates her to go into lay.

I hope this helps you and please keep us updated......Bill

[johng]

When I used it last fall the temp was pushing the upper limits of the recommended temp range. It killed a lot of brood and my queens completly shut down for about 8 days. Adding brood to the hive in question will help no doubt. But, if she is there I would think you would be finding new eggs by now. As far as finding the queen, once you find eggs start looking for the eggs that are almost standing straight up. They will almost look like dots in the cell instead of like grains of rice. Normally she won't be too far from the straight up eggs. Chris gave some good hints at finding her too.

[chrisd4421]

Hi all,
Weather has not been particularly good but managed to get back into the hive today. Did a complete inspection frame-by-frame. I did not find the queen but did see some larva about to be capped. Not a lot but at least there was some activity of a queen post MAQS. Will go back in over the next few days to inspect again.

I did add some 1:1 to help stimulate. the hive is light but looks like they are starting to bring in some more nectar now.


More to come tomorrow.

Thanks for the support.

Chris

[chrisd4421]

Update:

Been 14 days since I removed the MAQS. Went into all hives today to inspect and also to try to find the queens....being armed with a little know-how can be dangerous Hive 1 and 2 are very strong; lots of bees, wonderfully packed brood patterns. Hive 3 which was my concern is in much better shape. I see a solid brood pattern. I did notice 2 empty queen cells so they obviously made a decision on their own (or had it made for them). In trying to find the queen, I managed to locate her!! I run all mediums (3 brood boxes) and located her in the middle medium. She blends in really well as her coloring is not that different. I watched for about 2-3 minutes as she laid a few eggs. I also located hive 1's queen also in the middle medium. She was a little easier as she is marked.

Thanks to all who helped.....I learned much from this experience
Chris in NJ