Bought a queen - checking hive is queenless

[JonnyPicklechin]

Hi there

I have a caught swarm but I reckon its gone queenless....

Loads of comb building but no eggs or larvae that I can see...just loads of stores. I put in an open brood test frame yesterday but its probably too soon to see...will check shortly...

But have bought a queen which arrived today. This was destined for another Q- hive...wanted to to check if I introduce the new queen in her cage to the top of the suspected, swarmed, q- colony brood box, if they are q- how should I notice they will act? Same obviously if they are Q+....

If I can get decent evidence form this that it is Q- I may just go ahead and use the queen for this hive....

 

[enrico]

Better to use a test frame. You may have a virgin in there that has not started laying yet.
Put the new queen in a nuc with a couple of frames of bees still in her cage for the moment until you decide where she is going.
E

 

[JonnyPicklechin]

Done....I took a couple of frames of stores from two different hives and put HM still in the cage in between two frames of fresh.

Interestingly I did put the Q cage on the top of the target swarm hive and they looked like they were aggressively clustering. It took about 15 minutes. I was still able to move them relatively easily with my finger but a couple of them were hanging for dear life off the grill of the cage....

 

[Bakerbee]

I thought my hive was queenless a month back. I had no spare frames of bias to check with. My husband and i checked together 4 times, going through each comb eyes on both sides and we missed either a virgin queen(my hunch) or newly mated queen. I introduced a lovely buckfast from hivemaker using a push in cage. When it was time to release her the bees showed no agression. I watched her move around the frame for a good while and the bees looked totally happy, no bslling at all. I closed them up and left them over a week. Upon inspection i could not find my marked buckfast but did find a huge new queen laying like the clappers. Was she on a mating flight when my hubby and i checked, we will never know, shes so big im shocked we didnt spot her looking through the 4 times, but i advise caution on whether its queenless so my mistake is not repeated. I was worried they had been broodless for so long they would start worker laying. But Hivemaker predicted this would happen and i have learnt a valuble lesson. Definetly pop her on some frames and wait till the test frame shows its results its a horrid feeling knowing youve lost a lovely queen that someone had bred so well.

 

[enrico]

The one thing g you have to be careful about if you don't keep comprehensive notes is that time seems to pass along quicker than it actually does. Sometimes it seems that a hive has been broodless for weeks and therefore queenless when all that is happening is that time is passing while she emerges, matures, mates and starts laying in any quantity. Patience can be a real virtue in this game!
E

 

[mickbees23]

Enrico is right, they nearly always have a queen some place. It us beekeepers that get it wrong most times.
If I think they are missing a queen I pop a laying queen from a nuc into a queen cage and lay it on top of the frames to see the reaction. One time the queen I couldn't find came marching up to see who the intruder was..LOL

Always give them time, its usually longer than we are taught or you may think.

Cheers, Mick.

 

[Beefriendly]

shes so big im shocked we didnt spot her looking through the 4 times, b

Their abdomens don't start to expand significantly until after their mating flights...Virgins are quite small until mated.
I always take my cap off to virgin spotters...not something I'm good at.

 

[Millet]

Their abdomens don't start to expand significantly until after their mating flights...Virgins are quite small until mated.
I always take my cap off to virgin spotters...not something I'm good at.

Them virgins sure do take some spotting however i have spotted 4 out of 4 up to now, that F2 Virgin which will be F3 now has a abdomen that is nearly black and really slender the last time i spotted her, i am waiting with baited breath now to see if she gets mated and produces bees that want to kill me..

 

[B+.]

Them virgins sure do take some spotting however i have spotted 4 out of 4 up to now,

what about the 5th one? ;-)

 

[Millet]

what about the 5th one? ;-)

I will be looking in on two colonies today that may well have a 5th and 6th virgin running around in there lets see if i can find them..

 

[Poly Hive]

A cardinal rule of beekeeping that Q- is RARE.

There is almost always a queen of some sort unless the beekeeper has intervened.

The reason for the teaching of having two colonies is to have a Test Frame to hand. Invaluable tool.

PH

 

[enrico]

A cardinal rule of beekeeping that Q- is RARE.

There is almost always a queen of some sort unless the beekeeper has intervened.

The reason for the teaching of having two colonies is to have a Test Frame to hand. Invaluable tool.

PH

Oh well said, I agree
E

 

[Bakerbee]

Some very wise words on here. Patience is the biggest of them i think. I was in the process of a split to be able to have two hives for back up when i thought mine had gone queenless. Fortunatly i was called by a neighbour to collect a swarm recently so now have three. Now to sweet talk hubby into knocking up spare boxes for all eventualities, surely thats why he has his three sheds!