Drone Laying Queen?

[Fusion_power]

Number of egg producing ovules in the ovaries are the prime determinant of queen size. Judge a queen by her performance. In this case, the performance is clearly sub-par.

All else being equal, the quantity of royal jelly a queen is fed as a larva determines ovary size. Underfed queens may have half as many ovarioles as a well fed queen. Even a little bit of underfeeding shows as a reduction in future egg laying capability. As many as 20% of well fed queens will still need to be culled based on performance in the mating nucleus. This is one area where many queen breeders do not exercise enough discrimination. A breeder I purchased queens from back in the 1970's and 1980's was so picky about his queens that he would only cage and sell a queen that produced full concentric combs of brood by the time he caged her after 3 weeks of laying. He said it saved trouble later to sell only the best queens.

I've lost a lot of that brood production in the course of selecting for mite tolerance. Hopefully I will be able to re-select for the traits that lead to exceptional brood capability over the next few years. I would love to have queens routinely laying 14 Langstroth frames full of brood again.

 

[BMH]

Queen squished and merged with another nuc. All nucs very strong now. 6 frames of bees. 2 frames of brood/emerging brood. Plenty of stores and pollen

Virgins either emerged or due to emerge to today/tomorrow.

Right in the middle of a flow here and weather set fair for the week.

25c on Tuesday apparently.

Fingers crossed.

Will merge colonies for winter anyway with best performing queens.

The main driver for such late queen rearing is replacement queens anyway

 

[midnight sun]

Its a 6 frame nuc. Probably has 1.5 frames of stores, 1 frame of 'brood' (50/50 drone/worker) and then 4.5 frames of drawn comb that is completely empty.

She is laying eggs in a very scatter gun approach and it appears they arent tending to some as well.

Its very strange behaviour but im putting it down to poor mating.

Will give her another couple of weeks and can replace her with a mated queen from a kielier mini nuc.

Are there enough bees in the box to look after the brood? A lack of numbers means more strain on the bees and they can't look after brood if thinly stretched. Maybe the queen is not laying as they can't look after them even if they wanted to. I had something like this last year. Too few bees so they let some of the brood die to save the rest. Try dummying down the nuc to give them less volume to look after and make sure they have pollen as well s honey to feed the nuc. The brood pattern does look a bit rough if it is not caused by stores getting in the way though.
Maybe a lost cause but not too late in the year to either save them or make another choice. Just my opinion on info to date.

 

[madasafish]

I would call the Bee Inspector ASAP.

If you have EFB in one comb, (and it's on the lower picture as well - see mid left discoloured larva) ), you need a proper test.

EFB is a NOTIFIABLE DISEASE..

 

[BMH]

ok.

Will get in touch and send them some pictures.

Certainly dont want to mess around if its anything like that!

Although the frame in question has been dutifully extinguished by my chickens!

 

[masterBK]

I don't think it looks like EFB more like abandoned drone brood which starves, twists and turns and melts down in a similar way . Lateral flow meter will help determine what it is although a good disease offcier will recognise it at a glance.

 

[Finman]

.

EFB is a NOTIFIABLE DISEASE..

It is not in rest of world.. When queen changes, it will be gone.

Britain, please update your disease knowledge and attitude. YOu have so much German genes that you like to burn everything.

And in this case there was so many problems in the hive, like nutrition things, that it is not odd if something appers.

But in this case it was a mistake if he joined mite filled brood into the better hive. Those miserable brood should be discarded.

 

[Finman]

ok.

Will get in touch and send them some pictures.

Certainly dont want to mess around if its anything like that!

Although the frame in question has been dutifully extinguished by my chickens!

And that is the way you nurse hives out there.......that hive is not an atom bomb. Only miserable queen.

yes, good name for those chicken frames. And the reason is varroa. That is my bet. Bald pupae.

Computer would say in this case: devide overflow!

To handle this level cases in beekeepeing does not earn this scale handling. Change the queen, that is all.

SQUEEZE is the medicin.
.

,

 

[midnight sun]

I don't think it looks like EFB more like abandoned drone brood which starves, twists and turns and melts down in a similar way . Lateral flow meter will help determine what it is although a good disease offcier will recognise it at a glance.

Tend to agree. Bee inspector said that last year when I wasn't sure if it was starvation and so bees nutured what they could, or EFB.