Queenless what to do?

[rayt]

Had a check yesterday and one of my hives appears to be Queenless, no brood or eggs, some drones, 6/7 seams of bees and either dysentery or nosema.
My other 2 hives don't have much brood and combining will spread the dysentery/nosema.
Question is what to do with them? Is it worth cutting out a small square of eggs from another hive to see if they can raise a queen? Let them die out?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Too early to think about raising a new queen - no drones about. How bad is the dysentery?

 

[rayt]

There's not much at the entrance but some on the frames.

 

[rayt]

3 frames I removed showing evidence of dysentry.

 

[pargyle]

There's not much at the entrance but some on the frames.

There really isn't much you can do with them at present .. You don't really want to shake them out as you don't want any spores of Nosema transferred to your other colonies .. Nosema is often associated with a queen weakness for it so that may have been part of the problem. If the colony is small it's probably not worth the effort of trying to save it .. if it is Nosema you would be looking at a Bailey comb change or a shook swarm .. you would need a new mated queen which isn't going to be a local one at this point in the season and by the time you have new queens from another colony I suspect this one will be gone.

Just leave them be and they wil die out is probably the easiest solution I'm afraid. If it is just dysentry and not Nosema (and you could get some tested for Nosema to be sure) then it might just be the cold and wet start to spring and they could well survive to the point where it's worth combining them but until you are sure it's not Nosema it's not worth the risk.

Either way, apart from a Nosema test, not a lot you can do ..

 

[mbc]

There really isn't much you can do with them at present .. You don't really want to shake them out as you don't want any spores of Nosema transferred to your other colonies .. Nosema is often associated with a queen weakness for it so that may have been part of the problem. If the colony is small it's probably not worth the effort of trying to save it .. if it is Nosema you would be looking at a Bailey comb change or a shook swarm .. you would need a new mated queen which isn't going to be a local one at this point in the season and by the time you have new queens from another colony I suspect this one will be gone.

Just leave them be and they wil die out is probably the easiest solution I'm afraid. If it is just dysentry and not Nosema (and you could get some tested for Nosema to be sure) then it might just be the cold and wet start to spring and they could well survive to the point where it's worth combining them but until you are sure it's not Nosema it's not worth the risk.

Either way, apart from a Nosema test, not a lot you can do ..

I'd go along with all of that.
Apart from the bailey/shook swarm bit, which I find a bit unnecessary.

 

[birdsandbees]

Too early to think about raising a new queen - no drones about. How bad is the dysentery?

I couldn't speak for Suffolk but there's Drone starting to appear here.
Inspection on my Top Bar yesterday revealed quite a lot of capped drone brood in patches on the combs.
Made me consider whether it might not be too early for swarms/queen rearing.

 

[pargyle]

I'd go along with all of that.
Apart from the bailey/shook swarm bit, which I find a bit unnecessary.

I'd agree with that as well .. but if it is Nosema and the comb is really badly soiled I would rather have some fresh comb under a developing colony rather than poo ridden stuff - I just think it gives them a better chance.

But you are quite right .. the best defence against Nosema is strong colonies in warm boxes and it's surpising how quickly they recover and how they will clean up the frames when you get bees with a good queen at their head.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

drones starting to appear and a good population of drones for successful queen mating are two different things and you also have the weather to contend with.
Colony looks doomed to me, better to just let them dwindle.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have a nine tenths dead colony. Just letting them go.
I'll let husband dispose of them in the end so that I don't have to get weepy over a dead knot of bees huddling round their queen

 

[Tremyfro]

I have a nine tenths dead colony. Just letting them go.
I'll let husband dispose of them in the end so that I don't have to get weepy over a dead knot of bees huddling round their queen

Can't you put them in a mating nuc? A poly one? If they are healthy?��

 

[Erichalfbee]

They are in a poly nuc dummied to the two frames they are straddling. They have been bringing in pollen.
If I had a mating nuc with drawn comb I would have put them in that.
Something else for the shopping list.....sigh.

 

[Cussword]

They are in a poly nuc dummied to the two frames they are straddling. They have been bringing in pollen.
If I had a mating nuc with drawn comb I would have put them in that.
Something else for the shopping list.....sigh.

A mating nuc, and an apidea, are they two different things?

 

[Poly Hive]

Yes and No. An apedia is but one type of mating mini nuc. There are a few types of them about.

PH

 

[Cussword]

OK, thanks.