A friend of mine who started beekeeping last year has a colony in a WBC hive. The bees overwintered ok and were expanding well. Her working shift pattern made regular inspection difficult and perhaps unwisely she went on holiday, leaving the colony to its own devices.
I saw her bees a couple of weeks ago when there were opened queen cells, no sign of the queen, angry bees and no brood at any stage to be seen.
I deduced the hive was queenless and it had no materials to remedy the situation. Fortunately another friend said he could probably provide a q+ swarm in a nuc but would check to see if the queen was laying before doing so.
I was passing the Q- owners house yesterday and called to see her. While I was there she checked the hive again where we found every empty cell blocked with nectar, bees in even worse humour than previous and shiny ageing bees. The workforce has always been defensive but hopefully if the potentially available swarm is better tempered we can unite with the still hard working foragers and she will end up with a good colony to go into autumn with.
I saw her bees a couple of weeks ago when there were opened queen cells, no sign of the queen, angry bees and no brood at any stage to be seen.
I deduced the hive was queenless and it had no materials to remedy the situation. Fortunately another friend said he could probably provide a q+ swarm in a nuc but would check to see if the queen was laying before doing so.
I was passing the Q- owners house yesterday and called to see her. While I was there she checked the hive again where we found every empty cell blocked with nectar, bees in even worse humour than previous and shiny ageing bees. The workforce has always been defensive but hopefully if the potentially available swarm is better tempered we can unite with the still hard working foragers and she will end up with a good colony to go into autumn with.
