[frysl]

I'm pretty sure that one of my three hives is now queenless. I took alook through all three of my hives this weekend and while two are doing great, I noticed that while I have capped brood in the third, I saw no larve or eggs. There are some nice looking queen cells being tended to in the hive. I'm wondering how long the hive can go with out a queen before it starts to break down. How long the hive can go if the new queen being produced is a failure? If the virgin goes out on a mating flight and doesn't return, will I still have time to order a queen and get her settled in?

 

[honeydreams]

remove the queen cells and buy a new queen to late in the year to wait for a queen to be made.

 

[frysl]

Thanks for the advice.
Steve

 

[WilliamsHoneyBees]

Well you're in Texas. I would say you have a chance of letting them make that queen. As long as you have drones you're good to go. Better yet take the frames of queen cells out and put them in a nuc. Give them a frame of honey for feed. Order another queen for your colony. If they don't accept the purchased queen you still have the queen in the nuc to fall back on if she dosen't get mated or dosen't return just move the frames back to the parent colony and you're not out anything. I'm still in my first year, but I've done this a few times.