Doomed for the Winter?

[DuckHunt]

Hi Beekeepers.

I'm a new Beekeeper in Bristol and have two colonies. I am in a bit of a predicament with one of my hives.
1. The colony was queenless around mid-July with approximately 6 or so Queen Cells (some of which were capped).
2. Nearing the end of July, one of the cells had hatched and the new virgin Queen had clearly killed all of the other potential Queens.
3. As I wasn't 100% sure there was a new Queen and to prevent some kind of laying worker situation, I donated a frame of open brood and eggs from the other colony.
4. I spotted the new virgin Queen (I read & heard their legs are still a little pink/red colour if they're a virgin) on 05-August-18.
5. I've checked the hive weekly since 05-August-18, have spotted the Queen today but; a) she still "looks" virgin and b) I now have zero eggs and zero brood on any of the brood box comb.

My concern now is perhaps the new queen is a duff as she's still not laying and also, is it now too late and the colony is doomed to fail in the winter due to the lack of ability to build up beforehand? Should I try and combine? Should I throw money at it and buy a mated Queen?

Very new Beekeeper here, forgive me for any mistakes and am open to suggestions. I'm always reading / watching videos / asking questions and trying to learn more.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I think you just have to be patient. Have another look in a week.
I don’t give up on my queens till six weeks after emergence

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

As Dani - you need patience. Stop faffing around in the hive and give them peace for a couple of weeks

 

[Millet]

From past experience if the supposedly Mated Queen is not laying within 5wk's 6wk's Tops she need's replacing with a bought in mated queen. ASAP..

 

[DuckHunt]

Appreciate the advice and what you've all said fills me with a bit more confidence. I guess I could leave it another couple of weeks, check back, if no eggs - re-queen or merge the colonies.

Thanks lady & gents.

 

[Millet]

Appreciate the advice and what you've all said fills me with a bit more confidence. I guess I could leave it another couple of weeks, check back, if no eggs - re-queen or merge the colonies.

Thanks lady & gents.

You are on a fine line Re Queening wise unless you have pollen by the bucket load.. i think you will pull safe though..

 

[Angry_Mob]

If you can spare another frame of brood it'll keep the numbers up and the brood pheromone inhibits laying workers.

 

[ShinySideUp]

This happened to me a few weeks ago and I was on the verge of uniting them with a smaller colony but decided to give it a couple of weeks as they were a bit on the defensive side and wanted to reduce the number of bees before the event. I gave it four weeks in the end and the other day I opened up to put in Apiguard prior to uniting and the frames are full of brood.

Give it time. If there is no queen you can always unite with your other colony to get them through the winter and then do some artificial swarms in the spring to up your hive count again.

 

[user 6228]

We had written off one of the colonies for my experiment as hopeless
After transport to an apiary they proved to be queenless with a bunch of queen cells started
a couple weeks later All of the queen cells had turned out to be duff. just a case of wait for them to die out. So we left them alone for a month
An inspection to dispose of the kit finds the colony going great guns with hordes of brood and a big fat queen....

Thats Bees for you.

 

[DuckHunt]

Kind of grave digging here, but I like to loop back in forums and thank people for advice I received. I went ahead and bought a queen in the end after at least a month of no queen and no eggs (possibly like 7 weeks in total actually). The day I went to install the new queen, the first brood frame I pulled out, there she was, a new queen laying eggs.... un-f'ing believable. Thank-fully, another beekeeper near by was queenless and so took the purchased one off my hands as a gift.

Checked both hives this weekend just gone and both seem to be going strong. So, thanks for the advice, which I kind of didn't take in the end through sheer panic, but you guys were right - they sorted themselves out. I wish you all a prosperous and sticky 2019.

 

[enrico]

It's actually nice to get an update, thanks
Patience is a real virtue in this game but I guess you realise that now!
Best of luck
E

 

[BeeSpace]

The day I went to install the new queen, the first brood frame I pulled out, there she was, a new queen laying eggs.... un-f'ing believable.

I'm sat giggling to myself as I did pretty much the same at the same time last year, so I can appreciate the feeling.

Mine was a split I made, thought it was queenless after a long wait, bought in a queen and, of course, beautiful laying queen present and correct when I opened up to install the new queen. The look on my face must have been a picture. I remember standing by the hive, looking at the caged queen in my hand and thinking 'what the hell do I do with her now?!

My purchase is currently doing very nicely, having overwintered in a poly nuc with some donated frames of brood.

Glad both yours seem to be doing well.

 

[Swarm]

As Enrico, it's great to hear the feedback, especially when it's positive. You will soon learn to panic less and trust that your bees know what they are doing.

 

[taurus]

I had one colony the year before last that did something similar. I'd given up on them and just put them to one side to live out their days into the autumn. Then towards October I noticed there were still bees going in and out - looked and found a nice queen laying beautifully. I nursed them with syrup and fondant, got them through the winter and they did brilliantly the next year.

It must have been over 8 weeks with no sign of eggs when I gave up on them.