New queen - whats happening?

[Simon88]

My hive has replaced the queen and she is laying lots of drone brood. Can this happen initially or is she not mated well?

 

[user 3509]

I would say that she is not well mated and you should replace her.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Agree with Val. She needs to go

 

[Spinney]

This is what has happened in my colony. Except more drone brood including super. My problem is finding her, obviously small enough to go through the queen excluder. I have separated the colony into two, giving each half a patch of eggs and young larvae from my good queen in the hope that I will find out this week which half she is in and there will be fewer bees to search through.

 

[Blunt Spike]

This is what has happened in my colony. Except more drone brood including super. My problem is finding her, obviously small enough to go through the queen excluder. I have separated the colony into two, giving each half a patch of eggs and young larvae from my good queen in the hope that I will find out this week which half she is in and there will be fewer bees to search through.

Are you sure you have a queen? Could it be a drone laying worker if there are eggs above the QE? How long since you last saw a queen / know you had a queen?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Could it be a drone laying worker

If you have laying workers you get hundreds

 

[Simon88]

There was definitely a queen in there. I have removed her now and will introduce a bought one today. I haven't had much success raising queens. There must not be many drones in my area for them to mate with. I don't know of any other bee keepers near to me.

I found brood at the bottom of the super as well.

Even though she is a poor layer would she still suppress the workers ovaries?

 

[Spinney]

Oh dear. I probably have two nucleus hives of laying workers then. Most drone brood in super. Last saw queen on 26 May - result of charged queen cell left when they swarmed in week 2 of Bailey.
1st June another single queen cell. Then last week drone brood.

 

[Spinney]

I would be grateful for a plan of action before I open the hives. If indeed I have just more drone brood in both.

I couldn’t see eggs because somebody had borrowed my torch and I need that or bright daylight to see them. There were tiny larvae. Made me wonder - hasn’t occurred to me before - when workers lay multiple eggs in a cell do they all hatch ?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Made me wonder - hasn’t occurred to me before - when workers lay multiple eggs in a cell do they all hatch ?

No

How many other colonies do you have?

 

[Spinney]

Two. Sort of.
Hive B has the new queen.
Hive C had a charged queen cell on 15 June. Looked like a possible supersedure. I didn’t want to risk the same happening so removed her to a nuc (Cc). On 22 June all looked well then 29 June there was a charged queen cell and no queen.
29 June I checked the frame the queen cell had been on in hive C and it was open.
Hive A is the one I tried a Bailey comb change, which turned into a disaster and is the one with drone brood 29 June.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

There was definitely a queen in there. I have removed her now and will introduce a bought one today. I haven't had much success raising queens. There must not be many drones in my area for them to mate with. I don't know of any other bee keepers near to me.

I found brood at the bottom of the super as well.

Even though she is a poor layer would she still suppress the workers ovaries?

Yes, you would not get laying workers if a queen was present.
If you register with beebase, you can see how many apiaries are within a short distance of you, You might be surprised as to how many there are. (Although some could be historical and not have any bees in them).