replace a queen

[shrekfeet]

I'm pretty new to this bee keeping lark. SO much to learn and so little time.
Anyway I have a colony that came to me as a swarm last year. didn't take any honey off them and fed fondant in winter - one pack and half of it is still left.

Did my spring check today and found the queen but no sign of brood. Some capped honey remains but not much. didn't seem to be many bees but a fair few returning with pollen. Noticed a number (say 50) of dead bees in cells, facing up with no caps.

Should I be seeing brood? Should I replace the queen before I lose the colony? Arrrgh help please

 

[broandy]

Did you see any eggs
I would leave her alone at moment look again in two weeks time

 

[Rosti]

Did you see any eggs
I would leave her alone at moment look again in two weeks time

, much too early to write her off

 

[Scutellator]

Is that because lack of sufficient food ?

 

[shrekfeet]

no sign of eggs
fondant remaining but there may have been access problems due to how the plastic wrapping had fallen
Should I feed syrup to be sure?

 

[shrekfeet]

any more comments on this one?

 

[richardbees]

Shrek

If you've got bees coming in with pollen there's brood somewhere - so don't even think of replacing the Queen yet! I fancy you've done something wrong - and what's with the winter fondant, didn't you feed syrup in the autumn?
Bees dead of starvation are in the comb head down
Clean the feeder hole out and put a contact feeder on with syrup (2lbs sugar 2 pints water). You could also get a gardeners handspray and mist the the frames with syrup - as starvation is the No 1 risk.
And on the next warm (15C) day carefully go through the frames and try to consolidate the brood.....making sure not to damage the queen.
Let us know how it goes!
richard

 

[Teemore]

Can the bees readily access the fondant? I note that you said that the plastic wrapper had fallen and potentially restricted the bees access but have you considered how close the feed hole is to where the colony is clustering? If the colony is weak they might not readily go up to the fondant unless it (and the feed hole) is directly above their cluster. (Guess how i know this.....) Consider putting some fondant on top of the frames or, if your crown board has two feed holes, rotate it so that a feed hole is above the cluster and put the fondant back on. A feed of strong syrup might also be beneficial.

 

[oliver90owner]

I fear if she is not laying there will be no brood to consolidate!

My question would be: Is there enough bees to actually be able to brood?

Sounds like a uniting job to me. Just there is a slight problem with only the single colony!

She may start laying if the weather gets warmer. 'Polished' cells may be an indicator of laying intent. But that means further disruption and a possible acccelerated demise if the colony is very marginal.

Seems to me they need a space restricting, airtight (heat-tight) divider to reduce the effective volume of their residence. transferring into a nuc hive (with insulation) might be good.

RAB