[Rick 1456]

On May 8th, hived a swarm. Two weeks checked. Little brood, lousy pattern, didn't see new eggs. Checked a 2 weeks later, lots of brood, (must have missed eggs) not a bad pattern. Two more weeks. Hive is doing well, population is good, brood good and now three capped queen cells. Took one cell and made a nuc from that hive. Today, two weeks later, the main hive brood is excellent, full pattern, lots of bees, new eggs. Did not see the queen and there is one capped queen cell and one soon to be capped. Put it back together and closed her up. Checked the nuc. New brood and larvae. Did not see the queen or any fresh eggs but a capped queen cell.
Is this just the obvious possibilities or maybe some bad genetics?
Poor mating
Injured
all the above
For what ever reason, these two hives aren't happy with their queens. My plan is to let them go and see what happens.
Thoughts appreciated
Rick from So Md

 

[beekeeper1756]

Thank you for posting this. I've noticed similar behavior in a few of my hives and I am really curious about what could be happening here.

 

[honeyshack]

Sometimes when a dearth hits, and the queens start to shut down, or if the feed gets low in a hive, due to a dearth, the bees figure that there is a problem and go ahead and supercede her.

 

[Rick 1456]

Sometimes when a dearth hits, and the queens start to shut down, or if the feed gets low in a hive, due to a dearth, the bees figure that there is a problem and go ahead and supercede her.
_____
Interesting: The Mother hive was fed for the first 2 weeks and I removed the syrup.(They had pretty much stopped taking it) wonder if that was a trigger. The honeyflow is winding down this time of year here as well.
The other thing I noticed is a few DWV bees being removed. I have read that sometimes disease gets "blamed" on the queen and they supercede. If that is the case and this is "genetic" feature, would the dearth in brood have an effect on the Varoa population???? AAAhhhh,,,,that doesn't make sense,,in the wild they probably wouldn't build up enough stores to make it through the winter.
Thanks
Rick

 

[Rick 1456]

I was doin some searchin and came across this from N.C State:

Russian colonies maintain active queen cells through
out the brood-rearing season. In Italian colonies, the
presence of queen cells is interpreted by beekeepers
as an attempt to swarm (reduce overcrowding by
establishing a new colony) or to supersede (kill and
replace) the resident queen. This is not the case with
Russian colonies, as the workers often destroy the
extra queen cells before they fully develop

Those of you with Russians,,,,,Do they cap them :scratch: as part of this maintaining queen cells?
Thanks
Rick

 

[johng]

I have a split that I made right before our main flow. I know for a fact they had a laying queen three times and each time they superceded her. I don't know why they kept doing it. I even gave them different eggs the last time and the queen was laying pretty good. But, not good enough for the bees cause they superceded her again. So this time I just combined them with another hive. My mentor said keep it simple and don't keep bees that keep causing you to work too much. These aren't Russians so I don't know if this is relavent, and I really didn't answer your question. But, wanted to let you know that it is happening to me with a hive of regular old mut bees.