New queen

[Frenchie]

So I recently had a queenless hive that started laying drone brood. I moved the hive 3ft and put a new hive in its place with a new queen. I left all alone for 10 days and when I inspected I saw plenty of bees,the new queen and some eggs,grubs and sealed brood. All well so I left for two weeks and inspected again. Stores in the super,bees happy and saw the queen,but unfortunately no eggs or grubs or new brood. Not sure what has gone wrong or how I can remedy the situation. Any advice most welcome, thanks.

 

[Ian123]

When you say new queen was she purchased? Or just new as in the hive you moved in.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

are you saying you had a colony of laying workers, which you then moved to one side, leaving the foraging bees return to a new hive and you then introduced a new queen?
or
are you saying you had a colony of laying workers, which you then moved to one side, leaving the foraging bees return to a new hive containing a new colony?
in either case what did you do with the remains of the colony of laying workes which you moved aside?

 

[enrico]

I get the feeling that you fear that the laying workers going to the new hive on the old site may have put the queen off laying. Don't know for sure but I think that is unlikely

 

[ericbeaumont]

a queenless hive

a new hive

Misleading use of words which leads to misunderstanding: a hive is the kit in which you put a colony of bees.

are you saying you had a colony of laying workers, which you then moved to one side, leaving the foraging bees return to a new hive containing a new colony?

Exactly.

 

[Frenchie]

So to be clear,I had one queenless colony which had some worker brood. I moved this hive 3 ft and in its place put a new,empty hive. Foraging bees returned to the new hive. I obtained a new, mated queen and introduced her ,in a cage,to the new hive. Checked a few days later and saw her moving around. I completely removed the original, worker brood hive and think most if the bees found there way into the new hive. Made an inspection after a week or so and saw eggs grubs and some sealed brood. Looked 2 weeks later, saw the queen moving around surrounded by attendants,but no sign of any eggs, grubs or sealed brood. Plan to inspect again in 2 weeks. Anything else I should do?, thanks.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I still don't understand the point of moving the hive to one side if, as you now say there was worker brood.
To be honest, I don't really understand what you were trying to achieve if they were actually laying workers

 

[Frenchie]

I still don't understand the point of moving the hive to one side if, as you now say there was worker brood.
To be honest, I don't really understand what you were trying to achieve if they were actually laying workers

 

[Frenchie]

The original hive had laying workers which as I understand it gives the colony the feeling they are "queen right" and would not accept the introduction of a new queen. Thus the reason for the 2nd hive with just the foraging bees only.

 

[ericbeaumont]

one queenless colony which had some worker brood

a queenless hive that started laying drone brood

If I read betwen the lines and conclude that the colony had both worker and drone brood but no queen, where did she go?

Either she failed in early spring, in which case the bees would have made EQCs, or they swarmed early; in both cases, the virgin may have failed to mate (or mated imperfectly) and had begun laying drone brood, but as there is worker brood present that must have happened recently. Queens do not disappear of their own accord...

Either way, it's too early for this lot to be a laying worker colony: in fact, sealed brood exudes a pheromone that supresses laying workers, and one way to prevent them in a Q- colony is to add a frame of brood regularly. What became of this colony? Did you shake it out and use the frames eleswhere?

https://bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm

queen moving around surrounded by attendants,but no sign of any eggs, grubs or sealed brood

Could be that the new bought queen is duff and cannot lay. Had this occasionally, though not from bought queens.