Caste in September

[MikeT]

I had a phone call in early August from the pig farm at the bottom of my road saying a waps nest was on a fence post. I went and had a look and found a small swarm.

I borrowed a nuc box and successfully hived the swarm and left the box next to the post to gather any strays. I then took it home. It all seemed well pollen being brought in and the workers seemed to be bringing in nectar, After a couple of weeks I had a look. No brood no eggs but plenty of pollen and nectar and 3 frame drawn out, the bees were very docile.

As my own nuc was well established, All frame drawn out, I took a frame of egg and gave t to the swarm and left them for a 2 weeks. 2 queen cells produced so I left well alone and looked again in another 11/2 weeks. No eggs and now plenty of black bees.

I put another frame of eggs in and again no luck. The yellow bees from the swarm were now in the minority, so decided to amalgamate with the parent hive, (probably shouldn't of done it for diseases)

Why do you think I was unsuccessful? At the time we had masses of swallows & house matins flying, as we have a reservoir adjacent to the property, therefore could these birds have taken the queen on her mating flight.

 

[enrico]

Your guess is as good as any. We will never know. Maybe no drones!

 

[jonnybeegood]

Are you sure there wasnt a queen? I had one that took over 6 weeks before it started to lay, & was difficult to spot as it wasnt a large queen.

 

[MikeT]

If there had been a queen present, I doubt if queen cells would have been produced. But the bees did not behave as though the queen was missing.

As far as I can remember there were few drones in the caste, but there were
a fair few in the other hive.

 

[Pete D]

Hi mike,
I would just think that the queen never mated. August here was the wettest and coolest for years. So Virgin queen beginning of August, 2 weeks later no brood, add a frame and another 2 weeks you had 2 queen cells, probably supercedure as Virgin queen was going stale although she still may of seen off the 2 queen cells. By now ,4 weeks it's September and week and half later, mid September nothing, lack of drones by then as a lot of hives kicked out the drones during August.
The 2 queen cells would of been emergency cells if no queen, easy to spot the difference.
My concern now would be that you released a virgin into your other hive that was queen right.
Good luck, time will tell. Welcome back to beekeeping.

 

[MikeT]

I went through the caste several times and could not find a queen. In the last inspection before I amalgamated, there were only a few bees on 2 or 3 frames and I looked very carefully. I would say I am fairly confident I did not have a queen.

If I have put a virgin in I have a small colony which I can use in the spring as a source of a queen and this one is placid.

Mike

 

[Pete D]

That's good then that you are fairly sure.
Does make you wonder what happened to the queen cells and why they made no emergency cells.

Will be fine I'm sure