[klbowden]

Thanks Clemens....I did read that (that all colonies have them) but am just paranoid that they will reject the queen getting shipped to us on Monday if there is no larva for them to take care of and a worker starts laying like mad. Being new we don't have the resources yet to put a brood frame in to keep the ladies busy to suppress a potential laying worker and I had a hard enough time locating this queen...really don't want to have to find another one if they reject her!
Good luck to you and your hive Jay T!

 

[klbowden]

Good to know Jeff. I ordered one from "mikesbeesandhoney" (also in Ohio) but we are having it shipped as our young kids are likely not to want to be in the car so long. Will keep Simpson's in mind in the future though!
The first two weeks they were going gang busters and all of a sudden - nada. I don't know if we somehow injured her inspecting or she flew away or what but we went from tons of building/laying to an abrupt stop and have spent a LONG time searching for her to no avail.
Good luck to you - I hope to have our bees as happy as yours are now soon.

 

[klbowden]

Thank you all for your responses...so far no laying worker (no eggs) and our queen should be arriving today or tomorrow so I will post an update. From all I read that a queenless colony sounds different...I can now vouch for that...they seem depressed, not as productive (what is there to work for I guess) and definitely have a different "pitch" to their buzz when you open the hive. Hope the ladies are happy with the new Queen when she arrives.

I will certainly vote in the poll. I feel like we have been VERY careful when inspecting so we are at a bit of a loss as to how our queen died/failed/disappeared.
Thank you all for your comments and suggestions!