Queen superseded in November

[beebob]

Just seeking some advice. A very strong and healthy hive of mine has just decided to murder its queen. Found her dead outside the hive today. Did an inspection, lots of bees, stores capped brood and uncapped brood. Didn't see any eggs but did see early stage larvae, so looks like she last layed 4ish days ago. Found 5 or so empty queen cups.

Very strange, and frustrating. She was a proficient layer and from my point of view a very healthy and strong queen.

I'm in Northern Ireland by the way.

 

[Erichalfbee]

She may have been living with her daughter for some time and only just been kicked out. Many queens have temporarily stopped laying this time of year.

Found 5 or so empty queen cups

Cups or queen cells.
If you mean queen cells were they there the last time you looked in and when was that ?

 

[beebob]

She may have been living with her daughter for some time and only just been kicked out. Many queens have temporarily stopped laying this time of year.

Cups or queen cells.
If you mean queen cells were they there the last time you looked in and when was that ?

Queen cups. Did an inspection 2 weeks ago on 19th Oct, it was cool and as soon as I seen some eggs I just closed it back up again, thinking maybe foolishly that it was too late in season for queen cells. Did a full inspection the week before on 12th Oct and didn't note any queen cells.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

nothing you can do anyway, and fiddling around at this time of year could make things worse. Just hope that you have a perfect supersedure going on and leave them to it.
If the old queen had just dropped dead you would have seen emergency QCs being made

 

[beebob]

nothing you can do anyway, and fiddling around at this time of year could make things worse. Just hope that you have a perfect supersedure going on and leave them to it.
If the old queen had just dropped dead you would have seen emergency QCs being made

Yeah, will let nature take it course and pick up again in the spring. There should be enough bees there to overwinter and could introduce a brood fame early in spring which they could make a new queen with if hopelessly queenless at that stage.

 

[ericbeaumont]

if hopelessly queenless at that stage

As above, supersedure is likely complete and all is well.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Fingers crossed it does sound like a perfect supersedure, I’ve not that long ago seen two queens in a nuc. Best of luck to you

 

[beebob]

Fingers crossed it does sound like a perfect supersedure, I’ve not that long ago seen two queens in a nuc. Best of luck to you

Hopefully so. Will queens have stopped laying now anyway? Probably not much point opening it up again to check for eggs until spring time.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Will queens have stopped laying now anyway?

A lot do at this time of year but not for long
Post 2

 

[Curly green finger's]

Hopefully so. Will queens have stopped laying now anyway? Probably not much point opening it up again to check for eggs until spring time.

As Dani said but it has been unseasonably warm when I inspected last I saw eggs, mainly queens that had brood breaks throughout September though, I think all you can do is make sure there winter prepped and either heft or if you have clear crown boards keep an eye on them and inspect them on a warm day in march.
I won’t be poking about now even if it took seconds to inspect on a warm day.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Probably not much point opening it up again to check for eggs until spring time.

no, not much point, if there is a queen in there, brood break or no, they just need peace to get sorted for the winter.
If there is no queen, you will have an empty hive to clean in the spring