Queenless Hive

[Pommie Bee]

Hi
I collected a swarm at beginning of June after a 2 week inspection there was no eggs or queen visible. I purchased a queen and inspected today after she was released 8 days ago and still no eggs or queen which is disappointing as the queen was marked.
Any ideas what next step would be? Realise the season is getting on

 

[Robbo8916]

Assuming you have no other hives your only real option would be to purchase another queen i imagine?

I lost my queen but luckily my bees had made enough cells to fill Brother Adam's entire apiary and I ended up with two new mated queens and two colonies as opposed to the one I had previously.

Without the resources to raise a new queen your bees will simply dwindle away to nothing. They need a laying queen asap or the adult bees will all be dead before her first lot of brood hatches.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hi
I collected a swarm at beginning of June after a 2 week inspection there was no eggs or queen visible. I purchased a queen and inspected today after she was released 8 days ago and still no eggs or queen which is disappointing as the queen was marked.
Any ideas what next step would be? Realise the season is getting on

Did you make sure there was no queen before you put in the bought one?

 

[Pommie Bee]

Hi Erica
I wasn't 100% sure there was no queen but after 2 weeks from housing the swarm I would have thought I would have seen some eggs butt nothing

 

[REDWOOD]

The only real way of telling is to put a frame with eggs in and see if they make queen cells, there might be a queen there but she might be a dud.

A swarm can have a mated queen or a virgin queen, you probably have a virgin

 

[snelgrove]

More than likely there was a virgin present which didn't mate in your swarm, and your introduced queen was killed. Buy another queen or unite.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The only real way of telling is to put a frame with eggs

test frame test frame

 

[MuswellMetro]

Hi
I collected a swarm at beginning of June after a 2 week inspection there was no eggs or queen visible. I purchased a queen and inspected today after she was released 8 days ago and still no eggs or queen which is disappointing as the queen was marked.
Any ideas what next step would be? Realise the season is getting on

it can take four weeks for a queen to come into lay in inclement weather, whats the weather been like?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yup, I concur - there was a queen there all along and you just wasted your money on buying a new one.

You know what they say about assumption........................

 

[maddydog]

Beg, borrow, or steal some eggs from somewhere at all possible. To try and introduce another bought in queen is likely throwing good money after bad imho. Plenty of reasons why another queen may die.

 

[drex]

Seems to be happening a lot this season as there have been several similar posts. It is rare for a hive to be queen less. For the sake of beginners ALWAYS USE A TEST FRAME rather than just assume queen less. If they raise queen cells then the colony was indeed queen less. Patience is a virtue. The longest I have gone was just under 6 weeks from seeing queen cells to spotting eggs.