queen\princess found outside front of hive

[RayN]

Hi,
I'm a new beekeeper this year. I have one small colony which I thought I'd more or less bedded down for the winter. The hive is in its third week of the second apiguard treatment.
This afternoon, I found a queen\princess on the ground in front of the hive! It looked a bit emaciated, minus a leg and had stubby wings. I did an emergency inspection of the hive, found a couple of what looked like partial or broken down supercedure cells and the original queen - I think! (Having only one hive I didn't bother marking the queen).
The inspection also revealed while there were bees and stores and space for brood there was no actual brood.

Any idea what's going on?
Should I worry?
What can I do?

 

[jezd]

Hi,
I'm a new beekeeper this year. I have one small colony which I thought I'd more or less bedded down for the winter. The hive is in its third week of the second apiguard treatment.
This afternoon, I found a queen\princess on the ground in front of the hive! It looked a bit emaciated, minus a leg and had stubby wings. I did an emergency inspection of the hive, found a couple of what looked like partial or broken down supercedure cells and the original queen - I think! (Having only one hive I didn't bother marking the queen).
The inspection also revealed while there were bees and stores and space for brood there was no actual brood.

Any idea what's going on?
Should I worry?
What can I do?

Not having much luck judging my own bees, but some thoughts:-

- how can you know she is not the new queen in the hive?
- no brood means little when apiguard is on, it causes the hive to do all sorts of odd things
- if you have/she is a mated queen then hold tight
- once apigaurd comes off and if its still warm I would give them a syrup feed as this may help induce laying again
- if you have a queen is there dont panic, the real worry is that she is a virgin with little chance of being mated (having said that, you spotted her so she sounds 'larger' = mated?)

Just thoughts....

 

[RayN]

Hi Jezd,
thanks for the quick reply and reassurance.
I'm pretty sure that the queen we found inside the hive is the original in that she looks like the original that I know and love. The one I found in front of the hive was smaller.
I'm hoping that it is the effect of the apiguard and I hope she'll start laying again, as you say, when the apiguard comes off.

Would the hive try and raise a new queen if the original queen went off lay?

Interesting times.

 

[jezd]

Hi Jezd,
thanks for the quick reply and reassurance.
I'm pretty sure that the queen we found inside the hive is the original in that she looks like the original that I know and love. The one I found in front of the hive was smaller.
I'm hoping that it is the effect of the apiguard and I hope she'll start laying again, as you say, when the apiguard comes off.

Would the hive try and raise a new queen if the original queen went off lay?

Interesting times.

Not sure, I have a number (8+ hives) that have gone off lay with Apiguard on and none have tried to replace - it could be that they realise its too late for supercedures and bailed the virgin anyway. You could always try and source a new Q but its getting late now, I suspect all will be well. As I said Apiguard seems to have a strange impact on hives and each reacts in its own way.

Its going be a warm end to next week, once the Apigaurd comes off give them some syrup to suggest a flow, she should lay some eggs if outside temps keep up.

Its at this point those that know what they are talking about slap me down

lol

 

[BKF Admin]

I agree with you Jezd,good advice..

I think they will sort themselves out once the Apiguard has finished and they have a good feed going.

 

[RoofTops]

I am a bit concerned about this talk about feeding. Winter feeding should have started in September, if not late August. Colonies which are not fed until October have a lower survival rate.

 

[VEG]

They are going to feed to stimulate the queen into laying not to top up the stores. The queen will need to start laying very soon though to have enough bees for the winter.

 

[RoofTops]

Must try to wake myself up next time before posting...

 

[RayN]

Thanks for the replies.

Am I right in thinking that apiguard isn't effective below 15 degrees C? It's been around 13 degrees here for the past week or so, so should I take the apiguard off now and start feeding?

 

[BKF Admin]

Leave it on and feed as well if it was me..

 

[RayN]

Admin, I'll do that.
Thanks.

 

[jezd]

Its warm for the end of this week anyway, bees cluster when cooler and I guess this is why they tend to leave the apigaurd at lower temps - having said that, I had hives that even in warm weather never moved the apigaurd anyway.