The Queen is dead.....

[Iainwilk01]

During inspection yesterday I found the Queen dead on the hive floor. She was bred last year, so still young. I’m not sure how she died or infact I somehow managed to kill her whilst looking for her. Anyway, I did spot plenty of larvae in the hive. Will the bees rear a Queen from the larvae in there? Also, if they do produce an emergency Queen, will she been poor quality and am I best to add a new one?
Thanks

 

[B+.]

During inspection yesterday I found the Queen dead on the hive floor. She was bred last year, so still young. I’m not sure how she died or infact I somehow managed to kill her whilst looking for her. Anyway, I did spot plenty of larvae in the hive. Will the bees rear a Queen from the larvae in there? Also, if they do produce an emergency Queen, will she been poor quality and am I best to add a new one?
Thanks

They will try to generate a new queen but, as you rightly point out, she may not be the best. They may use larvae that are older than they should be and the drones that any virgin queens they produce may not be good breeding material.
If you want to be sure, and can get hold of a well bred queen, that would be your best course of action

 

[Iainwilk01]

Cheers for the quick reply, I’ll get one ordered now!

 

[Anduril]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EynQxLn7d60&sns=tw
A good talk by David Tarky including emergency queens and what the bees do.

 

[pargyle]

During inspection yesterday I found the Queen dead on the hive floor. She was bred last year, so still young. I’m not sure how she died or infact I somehow managed to kill her whilst looking for her. Anyway, I did spot plenty of larvae in the hive. Will the bees rear a Queen from the larvae in there? Also, if they do produce an emergency Queen, will she been poor quality and am I best to add a new one?
Thanks

If you have a spare box you can hedge your bets ...

If they start (and they should) to produce emergency queen cells you can still let them get on with it and see what sort of a queen they produce.

At the same time you can take a few frames out of your queenless hive (make sure there are no queen cells on them) and put them in either a Nuc or a dummied down full hive and then introduce your bought in queen into that box (which, actually, is the safer option for bought in queens as the acceptance rate is high doing it this way).

See Ged Marshalls website for a well explained method of bought in queen introduction.

http://www.britishhoneyproducersltd.com/Queen_bees.html

Although you don't need two full frames of stores as he suggests you can get away with less but, as you will have lost the flying bees back to the original hive, you may need to give them some syrup until they start foraging for themselves.

With two colonies you have so many more options ..

 

[SDM]

There's always the possibility she was bluffing and isn't dead. Some queens will faint and play dead.

 

[jd101k2000]

Even if the emergency queen is A1, super, amazing, you will have lost many weeks. (Couple for her to emerge, couple for getting ready to mate, couple to start laying.) In that time you will have missed the season. If you want honey this year, you will probably want a laying queen in now.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

...whilst looking for her.

Don't look for her without reason, for exactly this reason (i.e. avoiding unnecessary disruption).

There's always the possibility she was bluffing and isn't dead. Some queens will faint and play dead.

I was marking one in a piston cage last week and was convinced I had squished her, although I wasn't sure how. She looked all but stone dead as I put it to one side. Then, brainwave, laid it open on the frames and they nursed her back to health. So yes she had fainted. I suppose an analogy is the CO2 the II people use.

 

[beeno]

During inspection yesterday I found the Queen dead on the hive floor. She was bred last year, so still young. I’m not sure how she died or infact I somehow managed to kill her whilst looking for her. Anyway, I did spot plenty of larvae in the hive. Will the bees rear a Queen from the larvae in there? Also, if they do produce an emergency Queen, will she been poor quality and am I best to add a new one?
Thanks

It's like Michael Palmer says, 'it's all about the jelly'. If there are enough nurse bees to produce ample royal jelly she may be ok i.e. it depends on the strength and make up of the colony.

 

[masterBK]

Esentially grafted, cupkit and Jenter queens are all emergency queens. Its all about the age of the larvae and how well they are fed. I have had some excellent queens from emergency cells in the past but using the methods listed above give you more control.

 

[beeno]

Esentially grafted, cupkit and Jenter queens are all emergency queens. Its all about the age of the larvae and how well they are fed. I have had some excellent queens from emergency cells in the past but using the methods listed above give you more control.

 

[Iainwilk01]

Cheers guys. I ordered a new queen from Charles at ‘Tiger Hall Bees’ and she has arrived today. I’ll inspect them to see if they have produced an emergency Queen or in fact see if the old one is still alive. Then I’ll make a nuc. The colony is very strong so plenty of nurse bees and suitable larvae.

 

[eltalia]

Cheers guys. I ordered a new queen from Charles at ‘Tiger Hall Bees’ and she has arrived today. I’ll inspect them to see if they have produced an emergency Queen or in fact see if the old one is still alive. Then I’ll make a nuc. The colony is very strong so plenty of nurse bees and suitable larvae.

The best of options.
Nice work! )

Bill

 

[Michael Palmer]

Our early season was two weeks late, but bloom times usually catch up by June. This year is an odd duck. Little Leaf Linden, Tilia cordata, is blooming in Burlington...2 weeks early.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Our early season was two weeks late, but bloom times usually catch up by June. This year is an odd duck. Little Leaf Linden, Tilia cordata, is blooming in Burlington...2 weeks early.

I saw old man's beard in good quantities this week. That is genuinely scary as with all the blackberry and lime out, it means potentially NOTHING til ivy.