[VaJim]

I'm pretty sure my hive has lost its queen. As of yesterday there is no brood or eggs or any sign of a queen.

I was able to get a couple of frames of eggs from a friend and we installed them into the hive. The frames contained only eggs, no brood.

My concern is that I may not have any nurse bees to do their part. How critical is this? I suspect most of the bees in the colony are at least a couple of weeks old.

Would I be better to bring in a 'new' queen from a supplier?

Thanks!

 

[Bee Whisperer]

I am not an expert, but if it were my hive, I would wait a few days after installing the frames with eggs, and see if they start building queen cells. If I didn't see some sign within 4 or 5 days, I would find a queen somewhere. But that is just my thoughts on it. It has worked for me in the past.

 

[Vance G]

You have nurse bees. Bees are versatile and can do any job called for. Give them another frame every week if you can until the new queen takes off in a month. Your friend doesn't have a swarm cell yet?

 

[VaJim]

I am not an expert, but if it were my hive, I would wait a few days after installing the frames with eggs, and see if they start building queen cells. If I didn't see some sign within 4 or 5 days, I would find a queen somewhere. But that is just my thoughts on it. It has worked for me in the past.

Thanks

It's actually been a few weeks with no sign of a queen.

 

[VaJim]

You have nurse bees. Bees are versatile and can do any job called for. Give them another frame every week if you can until the new queen takes off in a month. Your friend doesn't have a swarm cell yet?

Thanks Vance

No swarm cell, but I do have another source if needed to introduce a mated queen. If the bees can work with the eggs and produce a new queen, I'm OK with that. The hive is very strong and has lots of honey and pollen.

 

[Michael Bush]

>I'm pretty sure my hive has lost its queen. As of yesterday there is no brood or eggs or any sign of a queen.

That's not really a sign of no queen. It's a sign that there is no LAYING queen. There may or may not be a queen. A newly emerged virgin will take two weeks typically to start to lay and could take as long as three.

>I was able to get a couple of frames of eggs from a friend and we installed them into the hive. The frames contained only eggs, no brood.

Good. Open brood wouldn't hurt, but eggs will do.

>My concern is that I may not have any nurse bees to do their part. How critical is this?

It takes bees to make bees.

>most of the bees in the colony are at least a couple of weeks old.

Any bee can be a nurse bee if needed. Any bee can do any job if needed.

> Would I be better to bring in a 'new' queen from a supplier?

If there is a virgin queen (and the odds are there is) she will be killed. If there is no virgin queen, you'll get genetics that are probably not from your area.

 

[VaJim]

>I'm pretty sure my hive has lost its queen. As of yesterday there is no brood or eggs or any sign of a queen.

That's not really a sign of no queen. It's a sign that there is no LAYING queen. There may or may not be a queen. A newly emerged virgin will take two weeks typically to start to lay and could take as long as three.

>I was able to get a couple of frames of eggs from a friend and we installed them into the hive. The frames contained only eggs, no brood.

Good. Open brood wouldn't hurt, but eggs will do.

>My concern is that I may not have any nurse bees to do their part. How critical is this?

It takes bees to make bees.

>most of the bees in the colony are at least a couple of weeks old.

Any bee can be a nurse bee if needed. Any bee can do any job if needed.

> Would I be better to bring in a 'new' queen from a supplier?

If there is a virgin queen (and the odds are there is) she will be killed. If there is no virgin queen, you'll get genetics that are probably not from your area.

Thanks Michael

It sounds like I should be on the right track. The bees are smart and want to survive. I put it on my calendar to check the hive on May 10th.

Jim

 

[VaJim]

>
If there is a virgin queen (and the odds are there is) she will be killed. If there is no virgin queen, you'll get genetics that are probably not from your area.

This made me wonder.....IF there is a virgin queen, wouldn't the workers know this and only develop the eggs I brought in to more workers?

 

[Michael Bush]

>This made me wonder.....IF there is a virgin queen, wouldn't the workers know this and only develop the eggs I brought in to more workers?

Most likely, yes. Unless they get a wild hair and try to supersede...