Strange queen

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The queen in question I helped emerge from a swarm cell in bee inspectors hive. Put her in 36bs vacated nuc within one hour of emerging. Definitely a virgin when she went in there.
I can't quite work out how they did it but they seem to have ended up with a DLW instead - wearing a very pretty blue marking pattern if I may say so!

Looks like they never accepted her, she was killed then a laying worker (they cannot but lay drones if a worker) subsequently developed

 

[beeno]

Since laying workers, and many of them at a time, is such a common occurrence maybe someone could be kind enough to take a pic next time. Should not be difficult to spot!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

you've got a picture - in the OP

 

[Obee1]

Since laying workers, and many of them at a time, is such a common occurrence maybe someone could be kind enough to take a pic next time. Should not be difficult to spot!

I just looked in the nuc and it must be said quite a few bees look quite like the blue marked bee - with shiny black abdomens that are a bit pointy. Also noticed egg laying seems to have slowed right down - only a few eggs in there now - still doubles though and one stuck to a cell wall. I'm afraid I have to admit I most likely have laying workers.

On a brighter note my other nuc that - was made to host a foreign bucky queen, that then went AWOL on me - well that nuc made eQC and I marked the Virgin before mating. Today I saw eggs. Single eggs. Now to see if they get capped as worker brood. We wait.....I may end up with a spare queen yet!
Atm I have 5 hives with queens. One hive queenless that I gave a frame of larvae and eggs on Monday .... And a nuc with a spare queen. - maybe. Soon be back up to 6 queenright colonies. Plus a spare queen which is what I was aiming for.

 

[td4bees]

strange queen

My first impression was of a worker with CPV given the black shiny abdomen.

Is this the Welsh freebie or the one which arrived on the 18th July?

I was wating to see if someone would say about the black, body hair gone never a good sign, and send sample to test.queen

 

[Cussword]

I was wating to see if someone would say about the black, body hair gone never a good sign, and send sample to test.queen

Steady now

 

[beeno]

you've got a picture - in the OP

That's what I have doubts about. I have had laying workers once and I certainly did not notice any size difference between workers and laying workers. The literature mentions that one has to wait for one to lay to spot it, so it does not tie in IMHO. Lots of shiny black bees sounds more like CBPV to me. Sorry to be a doubting Tomas must have been on the forum for too long.

 

[Swarm]

I don't notice a size difference here either, in fact I thought there were a couple of bigger bees in that video.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I don't notice a size difference here either, in fact I thought there were a couple of bigger bees in that video.

the black bee only looks smaller as she is sans hair

 

[Obee1]

That's what I have doubts about. I have had laying workers once and I certainly did not notice any size difference between workers and laying workers. The literature mentions that one has to wait for one to lay to spot it, so it does not tie in IMHO. Lots of shiny black bees sounds more like CBPV to me. Sorry to be a doubting Tomas must have been on the forum for too long.

This is a really tiny tiny colony. Covering just 2 seams of bees really. I had a good look with my new magnifier light and can't see more than 4 drones with dwv and about 6 shiny bees. These drones are the newly emerged brood in the nuc. Can't see any varroa mites on the bees and no strange behaviour or paralysis. However I didn't uncap the drone brood to look for varroa as no tools on me. However the colony are for the chop. I don't want them infecting anything else in my little apiary.
Checked the nuc next door very carefully with the magnifying glass - no black shiny bees or dwv to be seen.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Why would they be for the "chop"? If your bee is a laying worker then just unite the few with another hive and give them a reason to live

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Why would they be for the "chop"? If your bee is a laying worker then just unite the few with another hive and give them a reason to live

seems determined to kill bees for some reason

 

[beeno]

Get a grip. I don't know who I feel more sorry for the bees or the newbies.

 

[Obee1]

seems determined to kill bees for some reason

Chill guys. I'm not going to do anything to kill them- I just meant they are small and queenless. They won't survive long and I'm not going to unite them with my other bees. Therefore they have had their chips.
Even if they don't have cbpv they do have dwv and probably high varroa. When the rest of the drone emerge I suspect they will all have dwv.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I don't notice a size difference here either, in fact I thought there were a couple of bigger bees in that video.

Once you accept that it isn't a queen then it's obvious it's just a shiny worker with a carefully applied blue dot. It's a nice colour combination too!

I had a good look with my new magnifier light and can't see more than 4 drones with dwv and about 6 shiny bees. ..... However the colony are for the chop. I don't want them infecting anything else in my little apiary.

Don't worry too much about it. If you check beebase you'll learn that CBPV can be overcome. It can be linked to the queen or it could be latent in all colonies and it can be exacerbated by other stress. A dwindling colony is under stress, if you shake out those bees and let them find their way into other colonies they'll be a useful addition to the workforce, and are unlikely to do any damage.

If you've got the time, Tom Bick's thread about CPBV is worth reading. http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=29505

There are a couple of videos on Beebase http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?pageid=275 along with the description that suits your shiny black bee to a tee. "Abdomens may also be distended and the wings dislocated."

 

[busybee53]

Have I got this wrong.? I thought that DWV existed in England before varroa came to the uk.

I understood that varroa just led to more cases of DWV because of the way that the mites pierce the body of the bee and thus give the virus a pathway to infect the bee. No idea which book this came from because I have read so many but will certainly have another look through.

My colony which got DWV had very low levels of varroa, and there is at least one other senior person at my association who had a colony which had hardly any varroa die of DWV.

Also I distinctly remember the Seasonal Bee Inspector telling me to cull my colony so as not to infect other colonies nearby.

Although some of the bees could not fly because of their deformed wings others from the same colony could fly and I presume it was these ones she was concerned about.

 

[Arfermo]

What's this? Bee or wasp? Quite pretty don't you think. Seen at Pompeii last month.
View attachment _SC00548.JPG

 

[BeeJayBee]

What's this? Bee or wasp? Quite pretty don't you think. Seen at Pompeii last month.
View attachment 12397

Sorry, but I can't see a picture.

 

[keith pierce]

Kill her. She will never take your colony through the winter

Sent from my HTC One M8s using Tapatalk

 

[Arfermo]

Too far to go get her. Let the Ities do it