Queen issues

birdsandbees · May 5, 2016

Rather than spam someone else post I was just thinking what a lot of Queen issues there seem to be!
I didn't make it but our club had Apiary meet last weekend but apparently three colonies Q+ but diminishing with BIAS but only small patches.
Had a similar one myself a short while ago, I Was waiting for one of my colonies to get going but they never really did, lots of stores queen laying but not expanding very quickly, the others all expanding at a rate of knots, I left them for another couple of weeks until I saw multiple eggs in cells from the Queen, at that point With still more than enough bees to cover what brood they had, no sign of disease, no visible Veroa (treated with OA vapour in Feb) and with the queen being a few years old I removed HRH and forced them to make Daughters. (She was First Generation pure queen)
I was in a bit of a panic thinking that right when the new princess needs to go on mating flights the weather is freezing!
Imagine my delight when she emerged two days ago just in time for the weather.
Managed to remove one of her sisters too so she's in a small Nuc colony.
My first attempt at deliberate queen replacement by using my own bees, fingers crossed it works out but was wondering if this many reports of dwindling colonies that are queen right is normal?

TryingToLetThemBee · May 5, 2016

Yes there seems to be a lot of it about. I had two and lost one due to my own incompetence. The other has liked the weather and rewarded me with frame after frame of eggs so it's back.

There was something about this winter / spring combination that really damaged some colonies.

oliver90owner · May 6, 2016

Dwindling is not necessarily a queen issue. Usually simply a shortage of housebees to sevice sufficient brood.

Reinforce with more bees is the simple cure. Small amounts of emerging brood, followed by larger amounts as the bees can cope with keeping all the frame area warm.

Root cause is overwintering weak colonies, or possibly poor varroa control at the winter bee rearing period.

Uniting for strong colonies before winter is better than having to unite when badly depleted in the spring.

Eyeman · May 6, 2016

I left them for another couple of weeks until I saw multiple eggs in cells from the Queen, at that point With still more than enough bees to cover what brood they had, no sign of disease, no visible Veroa (treated with OA vapour in Feb) and with the queen being a few years old I removed HRH and forced them to make Daughters.

Hi
Not saying what you did was wrong but this is what I would have done.
With 'spring dwindling' when I see Multiple eggs in cells it suggests to me that the queen is good but the workers can't keep pace with the queen. There are multiple reasons such as not enough young bees, nosema, varroa. Varroa can be out of control without you seeing any visible mites on bees!
In your situation I wouldn't have tried to raise emergency QC from a weak colony containing likely unhealthy and old workers and possibly comb riddled with nosema. Best QC come from strong healthy colonies.
You could have done as RAB said or made up a small nuc from one of your strong hives and when they were hopelessly queenless introduced your queen from the dwindling hive and assessed her credentials.
In these situations I move the queen in to a mini nuc.

birdsandbees · May 6, 2016

Eyeman said:
Hi
Not saying what you did was wrong but this is what I would have done.
With 'spring dwindling' when I see Multiple eggs in cells it suggests to me that the queen is good but the workers can't keep pace with the queen. There are multiple reasons such as not enough young bees, nosema, varroa. Varroa can be out of control without you seeing any visible mites on bees!
In your situation I wouldn't have tried to raise emergency QC from a weak colony containing likely unhealthy and old workers and possibly comb riddled with nosema. Best QC come from strong healthy colonies.
You could have done as RAB said or made up a small nuc from one of your strong hives and when they were hopelessly queenless introduced your queen from the dwindling hive and assessed her credentials.
In these situations I move the queen in to a mini nuc.

Hi,
Appreciate your advice, just a bit more info, they were a good strong colony going into winter, no mite drop other than the odd one on the bottom board and no sign of disease, the bees were covering a few frames and were more than sufficient to cover the area the Queen was laying in plus considerably more, I was perplexed as to why she wasn't laying beyond a small area?
I did originally bank the queen in a mini Nuc where she was laying but two weeks later she was gone (and not with the bees)
She was a good queen but at three years old and with the other colonies doing so well my original idea was to do exactly what you said and raise a daughter which would become the back up and give her another chance.
Wasn't to be it seems.

Also, I had added capped/emerging brood from another colony prior to taking this course of action to see if that boosted them into action.

Eyeman · May 6, 2016

Sounds like you did all you could to try a save the colony. Even putting the queen in a mini nuc doesn't guarantee success as I've found out in the past. Sometimes what will be will bee!