Queenless colony

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steve_e

House Bee
Joined
Jan 19, 2010
Messages
251
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0
Location
East Sussex
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
3
I'm in trouble I think (or more correctly the bees in my 3rd hive are).

I've just finished my four week api-life var treatment. I have to confess that during this time I didn't go into the brood box - it seemed a miserable enough thing to subject them to the treatment without going through the BB each time I added more strips. (ok, I'm expecting reproof here...).

Today I carried out the first thorough inspection and found quite an active full colony, with loads of stores and pollen, but no sign of Queen, capped or uncapped brood or eggs.

I'm not sure what the best thing to do is here. I'm pretty sure it's going to be too late to find another fertile queen, so should I be thinking of combining this workforce with one of the other colonies? One of them is quite a small colony (with currently two frames of brood and eggs and possibly a little light on food (although they're being fed) and the other one is quite full and happy.

Any suggestions welcome.

Regards, Steve
 
I'm in trouble I think (or more correctly the bees in my 3rd hive are).

I've just finished my four week api-life var treatment. I have to confess that during this time I didn't go into the brood box - it seemed a miserable enough thing to subject them to the treatment without going through the BB each time I added more strips. (ok, I'm expecting reproof here...).

Today I carried out the first thorough inspection and found quite an active full colony, with loads of stores and pollen, but no sign of Queen, capped or uncapped brood or eggs.

I'm not sure what the best thing to do is here. I'm pretty sure it's going to be too late to find another fertile queen, so should I be thinking of combining this workforce with one of the other colonies? One of them is quite a small colony (with currently two frames of brood and eggs and possibly a little light on food (although they're being fed) and the other one is quite full and happy.

Any suggestions welcome.

Regards, Steve

I would check, check and then a day later check again for a queen being present as it could be the api-life var has stopped her laying. Even if she is present they have a huge task recovering and producing enough bees to winter successfully and I would seriously consider combining either way.
Make sure that the hive you are combining is definitely queen - though.

Cheers
S
 
I would check, check and then a day later check again for a queen being present as it could be the api-life var has stopped her laying. Even if she is present they have a huge task recovering and producing enough bees to winter successfully and I would seriously consider combining either way.
Make sure that the hive you are combining is definitely queen - though.

Cheers
S

My Carnie hive goes off laying with apiguard and it takes at least 4 days for them to start polishing cells for HM to lay after apiguard, if you have eggs in another hive, use a test frame

whereas one of my Italians just build brace comb over the apiguard tub, and conitnue breed like rabbits, though this year they drew the line with Hivemakers/Admins thymol treatment, even they stopped laying for the first week
 
Not uncommon to find no brood in some colonys when treating with thymol,which is good,providing the colony is strong, as the brood break can give a much better kill rate regards the varroa. The queens usually start to lay soon after the removal of any left over treatment. Insert a test comb if your really concerned.
 
Oh, well that sounds hopeful, thanks!

Some of the frames had very clean polished looking cells so possibly there might be something to look forward to. The bees certainly looked purposeful enough. I removed the last traces of apiguard tabs anyway so I'll check again in a few days time to see if there's any uncapped brood.

I was surprised at how much food and pollen there was - it was by far the best stocked of the three colonies.
 
queenless

Hi we had a queen go off laying after Apiguard treatment a week after the treatment finished the queen started laying again this only happened in the one hive.Quite alarming at the time because how late in the season it is.
 
At this time of year keep on opening the brood chamber does more harm than good unless there is a problem, watching the bees at the entrance is of as much use, pollen and nectar going in usually means all o/k, just feed and heft to check they are storing food not eating it. Now I will sit back and be torn to shreds LOL
kev
 
Thanks both. There is one thing that makes this slightly unusual and that's that I had to move my hives out to a different place this summer (while I had some work done around their usual environment in my garden).

So I didn't keep as close an eye as I'd have liked, and as related elsewhere, I had one hive overwhelmed, apparently at least partially by wasps.

Now they're back I can see them every day, and all hives seem very active at the moment - pollen coming in in great big sacks - so at least I can keep very close tabs on them over the next few weeks. I'll let you know how things develop.

Regards
Steve
 
At this time of year keep on opening the brood chamber does more harm than good unless there is a problem, watching the bees at the entrance is of as much use, pollen and nectar going in usually means all o/k, just feed and heft to check they are storing food not eating it. Now I will sit back and be torn to shreds LOL
kev

:iagree:

I'm going to have a peek in mine in a couple of days, be the first time I've opened it up to look at the brood since I started with the apilife.

The bees are busy in two, a bit slower in one, but all three are bringing in Ivy pollen.
 
:iagree: Too!

Messing in the brood box this time of year is high risk because it is a bad time to accidentally kill a queen and because it is getting cooler and there is not much flow on, it also upsets the bees.
 
I thought you weren't supposed to open them when treating :( Have I got the wrong end of the stick?
 
Best not to keep opening them when treating with thymol based products or formic,lets the vapour out Kaz....and the more vapour kept within the hive the more effective the treatment.
 
Has anyone every tried placing a tray of raw thymol mix under the mesh floor so the fumes can evaporate?

Busy Bee
 
Best not to keep opening them when treating with thymol based products or formic,lets the vapour out Kaz....and the more vapour kept within the hive the more effective the treatment.

So it is ok to leave them for 4 weeks at this time of year without inspecting them?

Why do people inspect them while treating then? What reason? I would rather leave the buggers alone while in that mood when being treated, so why do some people inspect? I was told not to open the hive while the strips are doing their thing, but have read of people inspecting on here while treating at the same time?
 
Has anyone every tried placing a tray of raw thymol mix under the mesh floor so the fumes can evaporate?

Busy Bee

I would assume ( because I don't really know lol ) that you need the heat for the thymol to evaporate, and that putting it under the mesh floor wouldn't give a high enough temperature at this time of year. But I may be wrong :p
 
So it is ok to leave them for 4 weeks at this time of year without inspecting them?

Why do people inspect them while treating then? What reason? I would rather leave the buggers alone while in that mood when being treated, so why do some people inspect? I was told not to open the hive while the strips are doing their thing, but have read of people inspecting on here while treating at the same time?

Maybe them people are in the hive every other day then they say omg i not got any honey this year, remember every time yo look in your hive it knocks them back 24 hours
 
Has anyone every tried placing a tray of raw thymol mix under the mesh floor so the fumes can evaporate?

If you mean outside the hive - I think more fumes would miss the hive than go in - fumes would be blown away by the lightest breeze...
 
Maybe them people are in the hive every other day then they say omg i not got any honey this year, remember every time yo look in your hive it knocks them back 24 hours

lol, good point :D I shall just let them be me thinks. The second apilife will have been in for the last 2 weeks on Thursday, so we are going down for a look and to feed on Friday with the mentor. I hope their mood has improved :leaving:
 
4 weeks

you're not going to leave the hive for FOUR weeks because you'll need to be in after two to change over the treatment (or weekly for ALV)

richard
 
you're not going to leave the hive for FOUR weeks because you'll need to be in after two to change over the treatment (or weekly for ALV)

richard

true, but you should only be changing the tray of apiguard, not inspecting the brood area!
 

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