Queenless or not?

[Peterwh]

I have a colony from a 2010 swarm. The queen was never strong and I was thinking about what to do with her this year. I had to be away on business for three weeks at the end of April/Early May and they swarmed. I didn't see the swarm, but the number of bees halved while I was away. The swarm must have occured around May 12 plus or minus 3 or 4 days.

When I got back, no eggs, no uncapped brood, no capped brood, lots of stores. One queen cell with a hinged cap so I assumed I had a queen.

I've seen the odd larva and they keep making poor queen cells which I've destroyed. So far I've assumed this activity is from laying workers.

However, no sign of laying yet, no sign of a queen. In parallel I had two new nucleuses for two weeks and their queens only started laying a week ago when I'd got to the point of maximum uncertainty. I'm in Newark and the weather has not been very good.

5 days ago I inserted a frame of eggs from another colony as a test frame. Today, the eggs in the test frame are all larva, as I expected, and some are capped. However, not a single queen cell on the test frame.

I'm now thinking I have a poor queen, but could I have a queen that is not yet mated or not yet laying? I have maybe 20 drones.

What is the consensus? Queen or no queen?

I don't want to re-queen and lose the new one but I don't want to go on too long and lose the colony. Should I shake them onto a Q excluder and see if I can find anything that way?

Should I let the bees on the test frame emerge and strengthen the colony or destroy it when all are capped as a varoa treatment?

Any advice welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

[Midland Beek]

5 days ago I inserted a frame of eggs from another colony as a test frame. Today, the eggs in the test frame are all larva, as I expected, and some are capped. However, not a single queen cell on the test frame.

After making the above observation why do you then go on to ask whether the colony has a queen or not? Do you know how long it can take for a queen to mate and then come into lay? ... Up to 4 weeks. And then if they have not mated, an unmated queen will still start to lay eggs.

 

[Peterwh]

Yes, I do know, thanks for the constructive response

 

[drex]

Last year towards the end of August/early Sept I was in much the same position, and was in my first year of beekeeping. Test frames showed I had a queen, but it took her 5-6 weeks to come into lay. Even then the colony built up to a good size and over wintered well.

I let the larvae from test frames boost the numbers.

Last week I had 4 broodless hives, but believe them to have virgins in, but have not seen them, so am being patient. I will look see again on Sunday.

 

[drstitson]

seems like we're talking only about 3 weeks from queen emergence (give or take) so it may well take another fortnight for her to get mated and start laying.

 

[stilllearning]

ditto the 5 week wait, this year I've noticed that virtually all mine have taken longer than usual (usual being the last few years) I'm finding NUC's which have only just started laying that i made up on 24/4.
not raising cells from a test frame suggests you have a queen but the odd larvae and q/cell suggests a poorly mated one and one which needs disposing of. if she hatched around 13/5 I'd wait till about 20/6 or around that date and if your still unsure or have no eggs/larvae/brood then get rid of them.