Re-queen when there is a nectar flow?

[Suzi Q]

I have a colony that is making Q cells, queen has gone, very calm bees, brood and a half, with 2 supers, one being drawn. In terms of the bees making honey what is the best thing to do? Allow the bees to carry on with one Q cell, or re-queen now? I have some spare 2013 queens.

 

[Sean.]

If you have spare queens use one of them. As long as you know for sure that the queen has gone. Did they swarm or are they replacing a failing or dead queen?

 

[Suzi Q]

I think they swarmed, the cells are on the bottom of combs and on more than one frame. The bees are the calmest i have ever seen them, went through twice without smoke looking for the queen, she's marked but couldn't see her. In terms of the nectar flow we have now in London, if I left the hive to produce another queen, no bad thing, the bees are good bees, would they continue to work hard bringing in nectar? Or do bees work harder if there is a new mated queen in the hive?
Gosh sounds as though I'm a slave-driver! But i figure there's only another few weeks good foraging, seize the day as they say.

 

[Queens59]

Bees can get lazy with no queen...but seems to depend on the individual bees

 

[enrico]

Do be careful suzi, you keep using the phrase...I think... Is she there or not? If you are not sure then let them make their own, if you are sure then you can requeen.
E

 

[Skyhook]

Do be careful suzi, you keep using the phrase...I think... Is she there or not? If you are not sure then let them make their own, if you are sure then you can requeen.
E

If they're that calm, they probably have things in hand. Any chance a virgin has emerged? I would certainly reduce down the queen cells while you decide what to do next.

.

 

[Sean.]

Hi Suzi,

If you’re having trouble finding the queen, she may have gone via whatever means.

As already mentioned, reduce the number down. You’re looking for a queen cell which is big and has stippling on it, not a smooth one. So remove all the smooth ones first to make a short list of good queen cells to pick from. You can use scissors to cut the queen cell out carefully.
If they are raising queen cells, get an Apidea and put one in there 'just in case'. As queens can go missing on mating flights. Plus you would have another ready for the spring or a late split if it came to that.

As people have said, the mood is good so there may be a virgin in there. I’ve got a colony I use for rearing queens cells in, they have not got a queen and are a lovely temperament – and I’m not being sarcastic by that : )

 

[Suzi Q]

No, it is not possible there is a virgin in there. It IS possible the queen is lurking somewhere. What about reducing down, as y'all have said, to one good one, then remove that a day or two before emergence, which will be Sun/Mon next, and then re-queening? If I wait until the virgin gets going, 2/3 weeks have I not lost the best foraging time of this year?
As Sean suggests I could put the removed cell in an Apidea. Do bees in Apideas accept Q cells after the mated queen has been removed?

 

[enrico]

Honey isn't everything, your bees are!

 

[Suzi Q]

Honey isn't everything, your bees are!

Of course, and it's all for the bees over winter, I don't like feeding my bees nasty white sugar.

 

[Hawklord]

If they are building swarm cells and they aren't capped the queen is probably still there, so you could afford to knock all the queen cells off.

 

[richardbees]

In terms of the bees making honey

suzi, my area is now at "peak forage" and by the end of the month it's downhill to Ivy etc ....so as they're happy I'd leave them to it and go with your one sealed Q cell.

i.e. eggs laid tomorrow by a newly introduced Q wouldn't become foraging bees until mid/late August anyway.
richard

(wish I'd known you had some spare Qs!)

 

[Suzi Q]

I have one grafted queen, very proud of her, even though she is tiny and probably a scrub queen, (2 day old larva); one from an AS that I couldn't bare to squish, she's in an Apidea, and one in a failed queen introduction nuc, the bees killed the introduced queen after she had laid a few eggs, and made a queen cell. She's mated and laying, but I'm keeping an eye on that queen, from what I've read on the forum a queen raised in a nuc from scratch is usually no good. It has been an enjoyable learning curve, raising queens, I hope to be better at it next year.

 

[richardbees]

I have one grafted queen,

wow.. i'm impressed, think I've left it too late to try what with iffy eyesight and clumsy fingers!

Interested to know what you decide to do with that colony

 

[Suzi Q]

I went through the colony this evening and removed all cells except for one, capped. It was very easy, even shaking them off the comb to check in the nooks and crannys and they didn't mind too much, without smoke as well. Perhaps I should let the bees raise a queen from the cell since they are so good tempered. I have until Sunday to make up me mind.

 

[richardbees]

.....being friendly was their way of saying they want to keep their own Q!

 

[masterBK]

Suzi Q "nasty white sugar.!
---------------------------
You mean pure sucrose crystals?
Apideas will accept queen cells quite readily after less than an hour of queenlessness. Spare queens in nucs and minnucs are the best insurance in case of queenlessness. If you wait for a queen to be produced, mated and lay this can take a month. If you have a spare queen in a nuc you can introduce into a colony it can lay 30,000 eggs in a month and save your honey crop. Queenless bees don't gather as much honey as queenright ones.

 

[Suzi Q]

Suzi Q "nasty white sugar.!
---------------------------
You mean pure sucrose crystals?
Apideas will accept queen cells quite readily after less than an hour of queenlessness. Spare queens in nucs and minnucs are the best insurance in case of queenlessness. If you wait for a queen to be produced, mated and lay this can take a month. If you have a spare queen in a nuc you can introduce into a colony it can lay 30,000 eggs in a month and save your honey crop. Queenless bees don't gather as much honey as queenright ones.

Ahh! Thanks for that, I had an inkling , read it, heard it?, that queenless bees are not so industrious as queenright bees. The remaining cell is five days old, from capped, I'll wait another day or two then put the cell into the apidea and re-queen.
My bees will be getting mainly pure sucrose crystals for their winter survival but I hope to leave some honey for them as well.