Queen bee info.

[lester123]

I am new to beekeeping. If I have bees in my hive with no queen, will they make a queen or is it best to buy one? I live in Bluffton, S.C and trying to get organized for the summer. I have ordered bees for summer but I have bees in a hive from the past summer.

Warm regards,
Ron

 

[Poly Hive]

Dear Ron,

Please get real and search for a South Carolina forum.

Try here: http://scstatebeekeepers.com/

Our advice will be useless.

PJH

 

[lester123]

Thanks, will check out info.

 

[oliver90owner]

Ron,

Our advice will not be ‘useless’.

If you buy ‘package’ bees, they may arrive with a queen, as a separate part of the consignment, but usually with no queen. These will not produce their own queen.

If you have bees in a hive from last season, they will likely have a queen (but not guaranteed). The queen may not be any good, mind. Checking for brood, after a reasonable period of warm weather would confirm the presence of a queen. Worker (not drone) brood would confirm she was still a viable queen.

If no brood, there may be an unviable queen present. She would have to be found, and removed, before attempting to requeen.

RAB

 

[jeff33]

If such question is being asked (and without judging) I doubt Ron would be able to spot or recognise a queen or indeed differenciate between workers and drone brood. Perhaps support and assessment of your hive from a local beeks via your local association will be the best way forward.

 

[mazzamazda]

Ron,

Our advice will not be ‘useless’.

If you buy ‘package’ bees, they may arrive with a queen, as a separate part of the consignment, but usually with no queen. These will not produce their own queen.


RAB

Not sure I have ever heard of package bees being sent with no queen? She is usually in a cage with the consignment.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Not sure I have ever heard of package bees being sent with no queen?

Package bees can also be supplied without a queen.

 

[Finman]

.
Original question was, IF the hive do not have Queen, can it make a new queen?
- simple answer is no.

Can he buy a package bees?

- yes he can. It is very usual in USA.

Can he buy mere Queen..... IT is better to ask from Queen seller than from forum.

 

[jeff33]

.Can he buy mere Queen..... IT is better to ask from Queen seller than from forum.

But with the anti - immigration policy of trump, it cannot be an imported one.

 

[Popparand]

Please get real and search for a South Carolina forum.

Not very helpful, or friendly. I thought forum members were supposed to be mutually supportive. We all were beginners sometime and would probably have chucked it in if we couldn't rely on a bit of advice and encouragement from time to time.

 

[lester123]

Thanks Oliver for the reply. Good info. I will check all your info. Does make sense, if I have no queen, there would be no bees as I understand they only live 6 weeks in the summer.

 

[lester123]

Good info

Thanks for all the good info. I've made plans to attend an all day class on beekeeping for beginners. I've decided to maybe "get real" as noted from one response.

 

[jeff33]

Definitely the best option Ron so you can learn the basics and know what to look for in a hive.

 

[thorn]

Please get real and search for a South Carolina forum.

Not very helpful, or friendly. I thought forum members were supposed to be mutually supportive. We all were beginners sometime and would probably have chucked it in if we couldn't rely on a bit of advice and encouragement from time to time.

The advice was helpful but the intro was somewhat aggressive, something that many of us are guilty of and should guard against.

 

[oliver90owner]

Bees survive all winter! Only bees that have passed through the nursing stage age quickly. The summer mortality is not just simply age - the bees tend to get worn out foraging.

Usually there is a queen present with over-wintered bees, even if she is impotent (exhausted of sperm, so a drone layer, or unable to lay at all due to disease - like nosema)

A queenless hive of bees will most certainly survive more than 6 weeks during the summer season - they will clearly dwindle and they may, if strong enough, develop laying workers which will mean, eventually, a hive of mainly drones.

RAB

 

[Finman]

.
6 weeks is average. Not maximum.

My Winter bees live maximum 9 months. From August to half of May.
What is average, no idea. 5 month? IT does not mean that the colony us dead on February.

When a swarm has virgin Queen, it needs 4-5 weeks to get new bees to substitute old swarmed bees.

In spring, when the colony gets new bees, wintered bees turn to foragers. When weak wintered bees go to forage, they do not live many days.

My bees start to rear new brood at the beginning of May, and at the end of May all wintered bees are dead.

If trickling makes wintered bees short living, However they are short living after living the whole 6-9 month.

In England figures are very different.
.
.

 

[lester123]

Bees survive all winter! Only bees that have passed through the nursing stage age quickly. The summer mortality is not just simply age - the bees tend to get worn out foraging.

Usually there is a queen present with over-wintered bees, even if she is impotent (exhausted of sperm, so a drone layer, or unable to lay at all due to disease - like nosema)

A queenless hive of bees will most certainly survive more than 6 weeks during the summer season - they will clearly dwindle and they may, if strong enough, develop laying workers which will mean, eventually, a hive of mainly drones.

RAB

Very interesting...Thanks

 

[For want of a better word]

What are the odds for an unmated late season queen to make it through the winter in a colony.... and get mated in the spring?

10000 :1 ?

Yeghes da

 

[Beefriendly]

What are the odds for an unmated late season queen to make it through the winter in a colony.... and get mated in the spring?

Absolute ZERO.....if not mated within three weeks of emerging they can't get mated. Known since the year dot...Huber.

 

[Finman]

.
IT becomes a drone layer, and Icanhobbit knows it very well with probability. Hobbit like to speak against his better knowledge.