No eggs, queen not found

[Salamagundy]

I have a similar problem to Suechick but thought I should start a new thread rather than hijack hers.

This is the start of my second season so I'm still very much feeling my way.

I checked my hives on 22nd March and couldn't find the 2010 marked queen in one hive. Plenty of bees (7+ frames) and lots of sealed stores (too much - my fault for over-feeding..?) with lots of pollen going into the hive. No sign of eggs but the last of some sealed worker brood and about 20 sealed drone brood cells. I found 4 queen cups but nothing I could identify as a used queen cell. I put in a frame of brood, including eggs, from the next-door hive.

I checked again on 28th March and there were no new eggs and no queen cells. The drones had hatched.

Based on the figures given in Hooper I'm worried that the new queen I've assumed is in there won't have mated successfully before she gets too old, especially as the weather here has now taken a turn for the worse. (I've seen no other drones flying from any of the other hives.)

I plan to check again over Easter, hoping it will be warm enough, and if there are still no eggs, to put in another frame of brood.

Is this sensible? Is there a better way? Are they doomed...?!

Thanks in advance for any comments.

 

[enrico]

You are too worried about nothing. Please be patient. It is still early in the year. You have had sealed brood. You have loads of bees and the queen will probably be there. Just let them get on with things. I would suggest you have a Queen that is just not laying at the moment. It is too easy to think you have no queen, and then to start fiddling around trying to produce something they don't need.
Let them be and in a few weeks check again. I know I will be shot down in flames but I really think your inexperience is the problem here. They want to survive and generally they will do what they need to to do exactly that!!! We can interfere too much.
No offence meant here..... Sit back and take a deep breath!
E

 

[Salamagundy]

No offence meant here..... E

Thanks Enrico - absolutely no offence taken!

 

[susbees]

Also to the point: is there serious pollen going in?

 

[Salamagundy]

Also to the point: is there serious pollen going in?

It seemed to me to be a lot: my notes from the inspection on 28th mention 'pollen (lots)' for six frames. Watching the traffic at the entrance since then I haven't noticed any slowdown in the good weather we've been enjoying.

 

[enrico]

If they have brood they will need pollen but the reverse doesn't apply, in other words if they don't have brood doesn't mean they won't bring in pollen! You try and get nectar without getting pollen on yourself!
E

 

[Salamagundy]

Update after inspection today:

I now have one sealed queen cell and two unsealed queen cells with fat larvae in them. There are still plenty of bees, (7+ frames) so I'm fairly sure they haven't swarmed. There's lots of pollen going in still. There are two to three frames of stores in the brood box and four in the super. There is sealed drone brood on three frames, no worker brood and I saw no other larvae or eggs.

I'd be very grateful for any explanation of what's been going on and/or suggestions about what the best thing to do now is, if anything.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[enrico]

I'm blowed if I know ...... Queen cells and drone only? I am going to have to leave ths to others as I have no idea! I can only suggest there must be gags in there that you haven't seen but I think I might be insulting your intelligence!!!
Hope you get one answers
E

 

[Swarm]

Sounds like they are superseding, best advice is to leave them to it.

...But what if they decide to swarm?

Whether you take swarm measures is your decision. FWIW, I've done both in the past and had results.

 

[Salamagundy]

I can only suggest there must be gags in there that you haven't seen E

Gags??!! Quite possible I've missed things....

 

[Salamagundy]

Sounds like they are superseding, best advice is to leave them to it.

...But what if they decide to swarm?

Thanks Swarm. The weather was nice here yesterday and today, so I left them, as you suggest, hoping that if they were going to swarm they would have done so already....

 

[enrico]

Sorry gags was meant to be eggs ..... Stupid iPad

 

[Chickenlicken]

There seems to be a trend like this at the moment. I have spoken to other beekeepers with similar problems. You have two options available. The first is to leave the queen cells with the bees and let them do things naturally. I would knock down the sealed qc as you have no idea if it's vital or not. Leave the 2 uncapped qc. Before you choose this option, have a look how many drones are available to mate. Remember drones can take up to 2weeks to mature after hatching before being ready to mate. You want a fair few drones in both hives to ensure propper mating. A poorly mated queen is next to useless.
The other option is to combine the hives after knocking down all qc. You can then allow 1 queen to lay in double brood box until they draw their own qc and then you can artificial swarm.
Good luck
Clint

 

[rae]

Where are the queen cells?

Centre of frame - likely to be superseding.
Bottom of frame, and loads of them - swarm cells.

One of our has decided to supercede. No eggs/larvae and a single queen cell slap in the middle of the frame.

 

[drstitson]

since workers essentially won't raise and seal a non-viable queen cell the advice about keeping open cells is more to do with ensuring that you're selecting larvae that have been fed as queens for the full 5 days.

 

[Salamagundy]

Thanks for all the comments - much appreciated.