Signs of lost Queen

steve1958 · Sep 28, 2009

I checked my Hive this morning.
The Bees all looked Happy.
There is Honey everywhere.
Pollen stored as well.
Still some larva.
Plenty of sealed cells.

But
Couldnt see the Queen

She has done this to me before, so I am not too anxious..... yet

However - my question
If the Queen wasnt there. What signs would I see, or not see.

I guess I would know for sure in about 6 weeks time, as all my Bees would be dead

rae · Sep 28, 2009

We often don't spot her, despite being marked with a fluo green dot.

In hive 1 we saw her, so stopped looking.
In hive 2, we didn't see her last time (2 weeks ago), but there are c-shaped larvae in there, so she's been around in the last few days.

gandalfwhitewizard · Sep 28, 2009

Steve,
You say that you can see larvae, brood but do not mention eggs. If the larvae are visible to the naked eye then they are probably older than 24 hours, I wouldn't panic just yet. You also mention that the colony seems fine when you inspected and they aren't rushing around the comb and this is another indicator they are Q+ IMO.
Is the queen marked/clipped as you don't mention it so I presume that she isn't.
If she wasn't there you would expect to see either QC or QC's, unusual behaviour in your colony due to the lack of queen pheromone e.g. tetchy and lots of capped brood and absence of eggs/larvae.
Bear in mind the time of year and that the fact you maybe treating for Varroa with Apiguard taking the queen off the lay, the fact she is slowing down laying and the colony back filling laying space with stores again IMO.

BKF Admin · Sep 28, 2009

If you tap the side of the hive a queenless colony with growl at you..

steve1958 · Oct 2, 2009

I have been watching the Hive all week (couldnt do that on an out-Apiary)
Everything appeared as it should be,
but I couldnt resist having another look to try and find the Queen.
So today I 'Fired up' the smoker.

Put on my Bee Suit
and lifted the lid off the Hive.

Within less than 5 minutes I spotted her.
Walking around on one of the frames as if she owned the place.

Seeing that all is well, I quickly closed the Hive up
and let the little loves get on with their work
:cheers2: