[TuscaloosaBK]

I bought a package of bees in March in which I installed and the queen laid for about two months but now all I have is 4 empty frames with no brood. I've ordered a new queen as for some reason I couldn't see her the other day being in a rush. All I knew was no new eggs or capped brood. She still looks good and is still fat not slender but she isn't laying at all. Just running around frantically. Do I just need to kill her and how long before trying to introduce my new queen? She will be here in 3 days?

Thanks
Clark

 

[bugmeister]

Had the same issue last year with package. The queen was going through the motions-just a dancer. Do you have other hives you can pull a queen cell from and some brood? I waited too long. Replace her.

 

[warmbees]

I caught a swarm 2 years ago and the queen promptly disappeared. I purchased 2 queens, (One for my neighbor) and introduced them. Two weeks later, the neighbor queen had laid 2 frames worth of eggs. Mine had only laid about a paper plate size patch. I checked with the supplier, thinking that I might have gotten a dud, he told me that temperature and environmental conditions can drastically affect a queens ability to lay etc. Since my swarm was very small, he said I did not have enough bees to regulate the temperature in the hive, causing the queen to struggle. My little hive was out in the open with full sun. I tried shading, but she never seemed to recover and take off. So check your environment and see if you might need to make some small changes to help out. Just a thought.

 

[David LaFerney]

I have the best results by removing the old queen at the same time I install a new caged queen. Otherwise you run the risk that they start cells or the store bought queen dies in the mail. There is also an excellent chance that when your new queen arrives you discover that the "failing" queen has laid the hive full of brood. Don't jump the gun.