no eggs or larvae

[BB King]

Carried out an inspection today, capped honey in the super, brood box with pollen and honey but no sign of eggs or larve. The colony came out of winter well and 3 weeks ago I was finding larvae and young bees emerging from cells. The inspection last week gave me concerns but today am worried that no new bees are being produced.

I have had the hive for a year but have never been able to find the queen but she has always been doing the business.

The question is what to do now? Should I let nature take its course and let the colony create a new queen, or some other action?

 

[Dishmop]

They havent got anything to create a new queen from...

 

[The Riviera Kid]

no signs that the colony has swarmed recently? queen cells etc. if there is a virgin queen in there then there won't be any eggs.

If there are eggs 3 days old or less, and your queen has gone, then the workers will try and make emergency queen cells.

if you have another hive, you can take a frame of young eggs and put them in the queenless hive and if they make queen cells on it then you know your other queen has gone.



How are the bees in terms of temper? if they are not queenright they will get very irritable and aggressive.

Other than that, get a second opinion and if the queen has gone/died then get a new one in ASAP. Avoid the nightmare that is laying workers...

 

[BB King]

the bees are well tempered and no obvious queeen cells found. I don't have another hive so wouldl need to get a new queen

 

[oliver90owner]

Buzz,

We already have another forum member with the same screen name (barring the 'space'. It would be good if you contacted Admin to change your screen name in the interests of members (not getting mixed up with such very similar handles).

Apart from that, welcome to the forum.

First question would be: Are you using any medication to treat varroa at this present time?

There are several ways to find a queen - eg use a Q/E to isolate her to a smaller search area - and you will need to know if there is a queen present before attempting to introduce another (the new queen would almost certainly be rejected/killed if a queen was already present).

Regards, RAB

 

[enrico]

I know others won't agree but sometimes your queen will go off lay for no reason that is apparent to you, new beekeepers so often ring me saying that they have lost their queen. be a little patient, give it another few days and check again. I agree it is unusual for her to go off lay this early in the season but .....
My only concern would be you never seeing the queen, try and get an experienced person to find her and mark her in white for you (if she's there!!) when you see her during an inspection you can be extra careful that you don't accidentally kill her, if you never see her it is all to easy to squash her and never know!
Best of luck

 

[richardbees]

Buzz,

If the bees have stopped bringing in pollen and you're sure there are no eggs I'd suggest you try and buy a new queen asap

richard

 

[BB King]

thanks for the suggestions. The bees are bringing in lots of pollen all seems well except for the absence of larvae ans capped brood.

 

[tberni]

If you don't sort it out soon you may get a laying worker - then that would be a right bugger to sort out.

 

[Silly Bee]

Do you know any keepers in the area?

Can you "borrow" a frame with eggs on?

Are you a member of a local group?

 

[Midland Beek]

If there is no egg laying queen in your hive the obvious assumption would be that you lost a swarm maybe a week or two ago. Hope that the virgin queen in your hive will mate.

 

[BB King]

Do you know any keepers in the area?

Can you "borrow" a frame with eggs on?

Are you a member of a local group?

yes I am and that may be the best way forward, thanks for the advice

 

[BB King]

If there is no egg laying queen in your hive the obvious assumption would be that you lost a swarm maybe a week or two ago. Hope that the virgin queen in your hive will mate.

I have been inspecting weekly since early March and found no evidence of queen cells and the number of bees does not appear to have fallen. The absence of eggs and brood was noticed 2 weeks ago. I started last year with an unmarked 1year old queen so finding her has been difficult to say the least.

 

[BB King]

Carried out an inspection today and hooray found 2 frames with larvae. Not sure what has what has happened in the last 5 weeks. I was waiting to intoduce a new frame of eggs/larvae but a little patience paid off.

Thanks for all your comments, relieved all seems ok now

 

[susbees]

Dumping in a sealed surplus swarm cell is another way of hunting for a failing/off lay queen. I did that the other day and woosh, next day the side was ripped out. Now to find a less windy day to play find the scrub queen (late season effort they made that clearly hasn't worked out).

Oh and Enrico...you're welcome to come and mark my elusive queens ...we have at least three we never see, but they lay well (well except the one above...hope my grafts take).

 

[MJBee]

You need to make a determined effort to find and mark your queen while the population is relatively small.

So much easier to spot when she is marked and saves a lot of worry