Queen side of a split not laying

[colintinto]

Hi All,

Did a split of my biggest colony on the 14th June, Queen was laying well, and was close to a full BB of bees at the time of the split, all seemed quite strong.

Queenless side continued on fine, made a few queen cells, I left one in and took one for another colony, just waiting to see if we have new mated queens in a couple of weeks time.

However the side of the split with the good Queen has dwindled, and inspecting yesterday it seems she has stopped laying altogether. She is in a new (used) BB, with 3 drawn frames that went with her, as well as 2 new frames of foundation that haven't been drawn at all so far.

Any ideas to get her laying again?

Colin

 

[drex]

You say the BB was full of bees, but how many frames of brood?
Where did you site the hive with the queen? and where the split?

If you did not leave the queen on original site all the flying bees would have left her, hence the dwindle, and with few workers she will go off lay as no bees to look after brood.

I have read on here that such "emergency" queen cells produce poor queens, but have no experience of that.

 

[VEG]

emergency queens are a bit of a lottery. I have had some duff ones and some very good ones.

 

[Poly Hive]

I just wish people could get their heads round how to judge how strong a colony actually is.

It's not so much how many bees there are in a box but how much brood there is.

PH

 

[VEG]

Poly time for you to write another sticky I think

 

[oliver90owner]

Never mind the strength of the main box, although PH is right about assessment. The present problem is the plight of the queen in the split.

Your split with the queen - how many bees and brood went with her? Presumably she went to a new site? What was in these three drawn frames?

Without any further information, I am guessing the frames were stores, the flying bees went home, leaving the queen with very few workers and abandoned in a full sized brood box. I doubt I am far wrong with these guesses.

Put her in a nuc, add some bees and brood and give her a chance is my suggestion at this stage.

RAB

 

[colintinto]

I transferred 3 frames of brood with her, shook in some more bees, and put a super on top with some stores in it.

It's on the same site though, which I realise isn't ideal, and I was expecting it to dwindle a bit with the flying bees going back home... However I inspected it after a week, and again a week later, and there were a lot more bees than there are now, and everything seemed OK. Just seems to have been the last week or so that it's dropped away. The weather has been better this week too.

I can certainly scavenge a frame of brood from another hive and try that.

They are in a BB, but only with 5 frames and a blanking board (then a super on top). Will that do or is a nuc still better?

Colin

 

[greatbritishhoney]

Colin, have you actually seen the queen since you did the split? Have you seen any new eggs / larvae?
If not, then I would hazard a guess that your queen got killed or damaged in the split process.

 

[colintinto]

Oh yeah, have seen here, she's marked and easy to spot. Seemed to be moving around ok, couldn't see anything obviously wrong with her. Just no eggs or larvae.

Colin