Dlq

[Monsieur Abeille]

One colony appears to have a DLQ. Only apparent brood is drone, but it is on both sides of two frames , in a fair grouping (see attached), which leads me to surmise a DLQ rather than laying workers (is that a fair assumption?).

I'm rubbish at spotting the queen, and my plan is to do nothing assuming that the existing bees will very shortly die out. I have no urgent need for the box, and those flying may even bring in some stores. Does that sound reasonable?

 

[madasafish]

The one picture posted looked like laying workers..

 

[masterBK]

I think it more likely to be drone laying queen of the unmated variety. Without seeing the way the eggs are laid you can't say for certain it is laying worker. If the queen was unmated then all you will get is drone brood in worker cells as you do with laying workers. However such a queen generally only lays 1 egg per cell which is fairly centrally placed in the cell and fairly erect. When present there are normally several laying workers active at any one time so brood pattern less compact than with drone laying queen with several eggs per cell some of which will be on their sides. Either way at this time of year such colonies and their combs are a right off. You could shake them out away from other hives (removing the hive totally) so that any bees worth saving will fly back and drift into adjacent colonies.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Thank you very much for the reply - "colonies and their combs"? - presumably the combs are OK to be reused after any shakeout?

 

[jeff33]

Thank you very much for the reply - "colonies and their combs"? - presumably the combs are OK to be reused after any shakeout?

If you are sure that the colony did not have any disease or chalkbrood and you are desperate for comb I would say yes otherwise burn them as you don't want to contaminate a healthy colony with dirty comb.

 

[pargyle]

If you are sure that the colony did not have any disease or chalkbrood and you are desperate for comb I would say yes otherwise burn them as you don't want to contaminate a healthy colony with dirty comb.

I've seen worse comb re-used - there does not look to be any brood disease there so perfectly usable - desperate or not ... wild colonies are sometimes living in comb that is donkey's years old .. indeed, swarms seem to prefer comb to be well lived in.

 

[Plenty of honey]

I've seen worse comb re-used - there does not look to be any brood disease there so perfectly usable - desperate or not ... wild colonies are sometimes living in comb that is donkey's years old .. indeed, swarms seem to prefer comb to be well lived in.

lots of negative stuff about old comb, most can be used if its clean, not many drone cells. has numerous uses, I was only today sorting out a load to either save, or melt down. None had disease, evidence of previous varroa yes , but if the frames generally aren't deformed i either save them as a feed frame or as a frame for swarm traps. Their the ones i need most. clean and no pollen, wax moth go bananas on pollen if you give them the chance.

Clean old frames are a resource to me!! if theres just a few dead bees or unhatched brood i sometimes spend ten minutes yanking out the dead bees to clean up the frame.

 

[BeeJayBee]

To be honest I'd be inclined to shake the bees out and let them bring honey into a more productive hive where it'll be properly capped, because as the colony reduces they may not cap anything and is likely to end up being robbed.

If nothing else you could use the comb in bait hives or when collecting swarms, because they'll readily walk onto used comb.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Thanks for all the replies