Is this normal brood?

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

CliffDale

House Bee
Joined
Mar 13, 2010
Messages
210
Reaction score
0
Location
Cornwall uk
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
8
I bought in a queen last month for a queenless hive. She was introduced carefully by holding her in the queen cage for 3 days in the hive and then allowing the bees to get to the fondant to release her.


dscf6069h.jpg



dscf6065.jpg


http://a.imageshack.us/img838/8468/dscf6064.jpg

[IMG]http://a.imageshack.us/img714/1619/dscf6067r.jpg


Comments appreciated please.
 
Looks like drone brood to me. but i'm sure someone with a little bit more knowledge will confirm
 
I think its all drone brood. I just wanted a second opinion.

I went through the hive today and couldn't find the queen. I will have a more thorough look tomorrow.

Cliff
 
Drone brood.If all your brood frames look like this - you've got a drone laying queen-possibly not mated properly.
 
I would guess that your colony was never queenless at all and that the queen you got for £30 was killed on introduction.
 
Simple question many (possibly) would like to know; Was this bought-in queen marked and if so, how?

RAB
 
The queen was marked with a hardly noticeable blue .

I didn't see a queen in the last inspection but it was very quick as the weather was quite poor, (also I forgot my glasses)!

Tomorrow I will do a more thorough search.

I accept that if there is no queen it was a risk I took.

I'm hoping to find the queen tomorrow as this makes it an easier fix. If it is a laying worker, I'm seriously stuck as what to do.
 
Looks for eggs not the queen to begin with. If there are lots of eggs, one per cell, the queen is there and is a drone layer. If there are no eggs or larva then she has probably expired.
 
I requeened 2 colonies last week, but I dont think either queen survived.
One colony has a few queen cells, the other doesnt, but no eggs and no sign of the marked Queen. Also, the colony with the Q cells has gone back to being as nasty as it was after the Q left with a swarm in spring.
Would I stand more chance trying again now? i.e. with them both hopeless?
 
SixFooter one of the hives you re queened and you suspect has rejected the new queen has a few queen cells are they from eggs after you removed the old queen or eggs from the new queen?

From my limited experience of queen introduction a low number of times now is to first remove the old queen if present and leave the colony 3-4 days to start to make queen cells then remove any queen cells and then introduce the new queen.

the problem that can happen as I understand it is that when we remove the old queen the bees will start to make queen cells within a few hours and when we introduce the new queen we are not able to recognise the cell at such an early stage but the bees know they are raising a queen and are more likely to reject the introduced queen and continue with the queen cells.
 
So the new queen came from a queen breeder/ supplier that does not check the brood pattern of there mated queens to ensure they are mated,how unusual.
 
Back
Top