DLQ or DLW

[Monsieur Abeille]

Would be grateful for some opinions.

Got a swarm last year, fairly small but just big enough to winter in a hive . Queen was laying, but not a lot.

They survived winter and this spring she seemed to up her game and laying pretty well, however the colony a few weeks ago was still quite small.

Last week I took off some frames from the super and was surprised to see some drone brood up there, on three frames near the bottom. No sign of queen. Left the brood there.

Today I inspected brood chamber(first time for about 3 weeks) and the brood box is full of drone cells. My initial though was she had turned into a DLQ, but subsequently not so sure.


Facts are:

• I had a hunt for the queen this afternoon, spent about an hour going over frame after frame, but no sign. This though is not definitive as I haven't seen a queen for about four years!
• A lot of drone brood - spread across 7 14x12 frames, see photo below
• Some brood in the super, above a wire QE.
• I cannot see eggs by eye, with or without glasses, but luckily my camera can (see below). These photos were from the super and the eggs shown look to me to be skewed and possibly one with more than one in one of them?
• I initially though there was a laying pattern, suggesting DLQ, but there are also patches throughout.
• Some cells looked as if they may be worker cells

Based on the eggs I'm now leaning towards DLW - would be grateful for others thoughts

 

[masterBK]

Unmated drone laying queen no doubt about it. Probably a runt queen small and thin ebough to get through excluder.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Many thanks.

That being the case and seeing as how I seemingly cant find a queen when shes wearing a tiara and a pink spandex top with the letters Q.U.E.E.N.I.E., let alone a small runt, and bearing in mind space is limited (sheep roam the field), my plan will be:

1. Move the broodbox to one side
2. Place an empty one with frames in its place
3. Empty the super of bees and place this over the new box with a QE between
4. Place snelgrove type board on top of this with entrance facing another way
5. Wait for most flyers to occupy the new box, have another abortive search for the runt queen, and at some stage introduce a new queen to the new box.

Sound OK? Any better suggestions?

 

[theeggman]

[*]I cannot see eggs by eye, with or without glasses, but luckily my camera can (see below). These photos were from the super and the eggs shown look to me to be skewed and possibly one with more than one in one of them?

Following a tip on here I now use a small LED torch to look for eggs, it's great, they show up a treat even with my iffy eyes. A keyring torch would do the job and be small to use. The bees don't take any notice of the light at all.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Many thanks.

That being the case and seeing as how I seemingly cant find a queen when shes wearing a tiara and a pink spandex top with the letters Q.U.E.E.N.I.E., let alone a small runt, and bearing in mind space is limited (sheep roam the field), my plan will be:

1. Move the broodbox to one side
2. Place an empty one with frames in its place
3. Empty the super of bees and place this over the new box with a QE between
4. Place snelgrove type board on top of this with entrance facing another way
5. Wait for most flyers to occupy the new box, have another abortive search for the runt queen, and at some stage introduce a new queen to the new box.

Sound OK? Any better suggestions?

On reflection I wasn't sure if having the colony with the duff queen on top may encourage some of the good flyers back to the bad hive, especially as the new queen hasn't arrived yet, so I left the top entrance shut for all but a few hours yesterday while the bees in the new hive got bedded in.

Bad move.

This morning I decided that I was going to shake them all out some way away (having been reassured that the duff queen wouldn't find her way back to the new colony), but discovered I'd managed to cause 99% deaths due I'm sure to overheating - solid floor and no ventilation while temps soared.

Bloody stupid of me on reflection, and I suppose I can console myself with the fact that most of them would have perished post shaking out, but still feeling quite guilty about it - I should have thought of it after 9 years keeping.

Lesson learnt.

 

[Eyeman]

Second colony this year with a DLQ that gets through the QE and has laid in the supers.
All bees from brood box & supers shaken out- supers placed on a different Q+ colony and brood and brood box placed back on original site with a test frame from a Q+ colony. Will remove QC's in 1 week and requeen.
Note to self- must check those colonies I'm leaving to requeen themselves sooner.

 

[viridens]

You say "Some cells looked as if they may be worker cells". It's difficult to see, but I think there are capped worker cells there too, especially around the bottom centre of your first picture. If so, there must be a mated Q in there somewhere. That brood above the Q.E. is strange if it's in good condition.

Maybe another possible course of action is to immediately do nothing, and watch for a while. One of my hives had a similar drone explosion back at the start of June with brood on almost every comb. It has levelled out and the proportion of drone to worker brood has switched the other way and it's doing fine now.

 

[Eyeman]

Second colony this year with a DLQ that gets through the QE and has laid in the supers.
All bees from brood box & supers shaken out- supers placed on a different Q+ colony and brood and brood box placed back on original site with a test frame from a Q+ colony. Will remove QC's in 1 week and requeen.
Note to self- must check those colonies I'm leaving to requeen themselves sooner.

Checked colony 1 week after shaking all bees off frames & brood box and there are eggs in the bottom of the cells- single eggs on bottom and no queen cells on test frame. So DLQ scrub has flown back!.
So I have shaken them all out again and put another test frame in and will revisit in 10 days.

 

[Erichalfbee]

So DLQ scrub has flown back!.

That's what I would expect?
Isn't the point of shaking out to get the bees to spread themselves around other colonies so you take their hive away?

 

[Eyeman]

That's what I would expect?
Isn't the point of shaking out to get the bees to spread themselves around other colonies so you take their hive away?

Hi
Thought it was laying workers that flew back so remove original hive. I had assumed DLQ may not be able to fly?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hi
Thought it was laying workers that flew back so remove original hive. I had assumed DLQ may not be able to fly?

No she flies it's just that if you remove their hive she will not be allowed into any other whereas the honey laden workers will

 

[Eyeman]

No she flies it's just that if you remove their hive she will not be allowed into any other whereas the honey laden workers will

I'm sure your right as that would explain why she flew back.