If my Hive is queenless?

[beenovice]

Following on from my "what did I do wrong" post, I am tending towards the fact that my hive is queenless. I have been advised to wait until spring and see what I end up with, which I fear is my only course of action. However, just thinking out loud
Are queens available this time of year (Uk or imported)?
Would they be accepted by the hive?
Would this improve the chances of hive survival?

The fact that my hive is queenless has not yet been confirmed. Their attitude for the last couple of months is certainly aggressive and getting worse. My hive is well insulated and they are not clustered in the hive.

Any advice, as always would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Cazza]

That's a pretty big "if." I bet you are jumping the gun and your hive will not turn out to be queenless.
If you opened me up at this time of year when I wasn't expecting it, I'd be pissed off too.
Better to wait and see.
I'm not sure if you can purchase queens at this time of year. I would not sell you one now.
As you do not know if you are queenless, it would not be a bright idea if you tried to add a new one.
Patience is a better bet.

Cazza

 

[mbc]

That's a pretty big "if." I bet you are jumping the gun and your hive will not turn out to be queenless.
If you opened me up at this time of year when I wasn't expecting it, I'd be pissed off too.
Better to wait and see.
I'm not sure if you can purchase queens at this time of year. I would not sell you one now.
As you do not know if you are queenless, it would not be a bright idea if you tried to add a new one.
Patience is a better bet.

Cazza

Spot on

Edit: And the answer to what you did wrong is nothing really, but you did have an incorrect preconception of how your bees would behave.

 

[beeboybee]

sit back and wait it out...... no point opening the hive this time of year, if the queen is in there- Great. If she is not, then there not a lot you can do until the weather gets warm.....
sit back catch up on some bee books, or check over you equipment for the coming season, just let them get on with it..... keep you eye out on the bright sunny days for any early signs of pollen being gathered as this can be a good indication of brood being reared - Eg there must be a queen.....

 

[pargyle]

Stop worrying ... the experienced beekeepers on here have said it all.. if they are queenless (and there's little real evidence apart from agression for this hypothesis) then you can't do anything now ... wait until the weather warms up and the you can open them up and be certain. There's no mileage in trying to open them up now and certainly no sensible chance of putting a new queen in there.

Watch them on the landing board when they are flying on decent days between now and then... if they are carrying in pollen then the odds are that they will have brood and will have a queen in there.

You have done oxalic so you should have a sticky board in ... watch to see what debris is falling out .. you often see 'stripes' on the sticky board where the brood area is - and another good indication that you have your queen in residence.

Most of all .. let them bee and read a few books on beekeeping. Try 'At the Hive Entrance' by Storch ... it's free to download as a pdf here and is an invaluable aid to a new beekeeper.

https://archive.org/details/AtTheHiveEntrance

 

[MartinJG]

Is this your only hive?
If yes, then what has already been posted does not require adding too!

Lets assume your hive is queenless, then re queening is one option, and the earliest you might get an imported queen is in April (try Kemlea ). You may find that this is too late as you may have a drone laying queen, so what should be done first is confirm that the hive is definitely queenless and no eggs are present. Then follow the instructions provided for the introduction of a new queen.

However, if you have another queen right hive and cannot or do not want to purchase a queen, then you could perform a newspaper (any, they don't read), amalgamation of the queenless hive, to the queen right hive. This procedure would strengthen the queen right hive, and at some point may bring on the swarming urge earlier, than would otherwise happen, due in part, to the increased number of bees. At this point you could split the hive again, and create a nuc with either the old queen, and or the new sealed (1 only) queen cell, the choice is yours!

 

[beeno]

Hi Beenovice,
Just in case the forum gets you going. Most of us with more than one colony has not seen any pollen going in yet. I know it is a wrench. I am doing an 'enrico' be patience!

 

[Queens59]

I wouldn't panic or worry so far in advance - but I think a hive needs a good proportion of young bees to accept a new Queen - and there is a good chance the hive wouldn't have them if they have been Q- for a while...could you unite with another hive instead?

 

[drstitson]

"Their attitude for the last couple of months is certainly aggressive and getting worse"

do you mean unprovoked attacks when nowhere near hives?
many people will not have opened their hives since october or maybe september.
what have you been doing over the autumn/winter and how?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It looks like you have made a quantum leap in assumption after a general and not totally relevant question in the other thread. Bees may be agressive when disturbed at this time of the year - especially if not tightly clustered in moderately mild weather.
There is nothing at all you can do at this time of the year anyway so no point in worrying.
Just leave them alone, make sure they have plenty of stores and there is a good chance that come spring they'll be fine

 

[enrico]

I'm with everyone else. I haven't seen my bees except for the odd one since autumn! They are not clustering because it has not been really cold but they are still inside! Think positive.....you have a queen who is raring to go, the bees are stroppy because they have nothing to do......already she will be laying the odd egg, soon they will be busy and happy again. Maybe not! But positive thinking is all you can do at the moment. Let us know in spring what has happened, I reckon all will be well.....good luck
E
( by the way beeno......proud of you! Patience is a virtue!)

 

[REDWOOD]

Patience is a virtue
posses it if you can
never found in beekeepers
and never in a man

 

[richardbees]

Following on from my "what did I do wrong" post

beenovice

being Queenless was just one opinion.....and I can't see on what it was based. You are probably OK, so don't worry.

You've done everything right so far this year so now leave it up to them.....they're remarkably resilient===== as long as a cow doesn't knock the hive over or you didn't provide enough food.

 

[BeeJayBee]

It looks like you have made a quantum leap in assumption after a general and not totally relevant question in the other thread.

True.

I asked as a separate, general, question in the other thread because aggression can be a symptom of queenlessness but it isn't always the case. Some types of bee are more aggressive than others. If the nature of the colony has changed it could be because you've got a new queen in there without knowing it.

Could be ... there are a lot of "could be" answers to your original question about aggression. Take them all on board and then sit back and wait for longer, warmer, days because the reality is that there isn't much you can do about it now apart from learn and plan ahead.

Keep asking questions, and make your own plans to deal with as many possible outcomes - at some point in the future you'll probably need to deal with every single one of them.

Bees may be agressive when disturbed at this time of the year - especially if not tightly clustered in moderately mild weather.

It could be that when you open them on a lovely Spring day that they'll be fine, and back to as they were earlier last year.

 

[pargyle]

Following on from my "what did I do wrong" post

beenovice

being Queenless was just one opinion.....and I can't see on what it was based. .

Colonies that are queenless often become agressive ... OP's bees were aggressive hence someone's opinion.

I'm with the majority though ... I doubt queenlessness is an issue.

 

[GlenJ]

That's the thing! at this time of year there's b*gg*r all you can do. I've got a possible Q- colony, funnily enough diagnosed as such once already last spring by the bee inspector before the old girl showed herself! I'll wait until she should be laying and then decide about combining. There's a lot of advantages to having more than one colony!!

 

[VEG]

I wouldnt combine bees that are old and nearly on their last legs(which they will be if Q-) to a colony that has come through the winter ok. They will be more of a burden than a help to the Q+ colony.