[HELP] Two Queenless Hives

[Greatbigchicken]

Yippee, checked today, eggs in both hives. patience and a bit of sunshine was all that was needed.

 

[jezshim]

Am I right in thinking that a test frame has brood on it so a queenless hive would make new queen cells?

 

[MuswellMetro]

Am I right in thinking that a test frame has brood on it so a queenless hive would make new queen cells?

eggs and young Larva

they extend the cells of some eggs and young larva and make scrub queens that are smaller than a normal queen but can lay viable eggs if fertilised

 

[jezshim]

Thanks for info

 

[darren64]

Rae said: Some of ours that we ASd in mid April are only just coming into lay

Keep fingers crossed yet awhile - they may be drone layers.

Darren64 said: why?

Because that wil be a better option for the bees than having a drone layer at the onset of winter.

I meant why will there be supercedure cells in autumn even if they do mate.

 

[Glyn]

Hi,


Just thought I'd mention that we were in a similar position: performed AS on April 29th, no sign of eggs or queen for ages, presumed Q-, added test frame last week, checked again today to see eggs and larva

 

[Polyanwood]

I meant why will there be supercedure cells in autumn even if they do mate.

Like PH said... in bad weather the queen may not be able to mate sufficiently well to have enough drone semen on board to last her. She might have enough to last over the Summer, but the bees will be able to tell if she is only partially mated and they will often try to supersede her in order to ensure that they have a fully mated queen to go into Winter. The colony would be doomed in nature if in the Spring the queen turned out to be a drone layer. In prolonged bad weather there are more poorly mated queens. More poorly mated queens means more supersedure in the Autumn as the bees replace them.

 

[SteveJ]

Just Check all seven of my hives. All Queen right and laying well. As people have said it must of been the lousy May weather that held them up.

Thanks for all the advice.

SteveJ

 

[YorkshireBees]

Definitely due to the weather, I have several hives that were waiting for Queens to start laying, most of which are now doing so. For example a hive that swarmed on the 18th April still had no signs of a laying Queen on 2nd June so I added a test frame and sure enough by the 4th June eggs appeared on the frame next to it! May just have been coincidence but I believe there must have been the right conditions for mating as I have now found and marked 5 2011 queens that have all started laying in the last week or so!