[IslandGirl06]

Hello! Sorry if this seems like a newbie question but I have never had this problem before. I have been beekeeping for several years now, but always with Russians. Whenever they would swarm, they always would make themselves a new queen fairly quickly and I wouldn't have to worry about it (except for their temperament with new self reared queens, which I don't miss!) This year, we decided to go with Italians (we moved and sold the previous hives). One hive already swarmed and I was able to catch that swarm and have no problems. The population in the swarmed hive was still fairly high so I didn't seem to worry. Until my inspection yesterday. It had been about 2.5 weeks since the swarm and when I went into the swarmed hive yesterday I noticed frame upon frame of just honey and maybe one frame of brood and another frame with drone brood. I figured they were also becoming honey bound (?) so I replaced one frame with an empty frame and hopefully they would start the process of drawing that out and having a place for not only brood but to make a queen too. However, my mind couldn't stop thinking about this, so I wanted your opinion. I'm assuming I need to get a queen ASAP and since there is so little brood, would it be wise to take a frame of brood from another hive to sustain this one until the new queen starts to lay? Also, if anyone knows of someone selling Italian queens very close to Charlotte, NC I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you!

 

[Dominic]

What makes you think you need to get a queen? Maybe there's no eggs simply because the new queen doesn't have anywhere to lay any, the workers having filled it with honey while she was out mating? How old is the brood?

 

[IslandGirl06]

I think there is no queen because I obviously didn't see her for one thing (yet we all know that can be fleeting) There was almost no brood (although could be because there wasn't room, yet even then I feel like she could have layed on the frame that had little brood no?) the large amount of drone brood and the fact that there were zero queen cells, not even empty ones. They were also VERY agitated too.

 

[RayMarler]

I would put a frame with eggs into that hive and check it a week later for queen cells. This would give you the answer as to whether they are queenless or not. It's sounding like they are queenless and in possible danger of turning laying worker to me, from here.

 

[IslandGirl06]

Thank you for the replies. I do believe there is definitely a laying worker but I will be putting in a frame of brood now and I have a queen ordered which should be here by the end of next week which will give me ample time to see if they make one or not by then.