Too late for a new queen?

[Marco666]

Hi everyone,
One of my four hives has been queenless for about three weeks now, maybe more. I've moved some frames with new eggs from another hive hoping they are going to make a new queen. Is it too late for this procedure or I can still hope for the best?
Thank you.
Marco.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hi everyone,
One of my four hives has been queenless for about three weeks now, maybe more. I've moved some frames with new eggs from another hive hoping they are going to make a new queen. Is it too late for this procedure or I can still hope for the best?
Thank you.
Marco.

you can hope for the best - the last queen I bred this year mated and came into lay this week.
Mating is one thing - building up for the winter another.

 

[thomaso123t]

Hi Marco

From what I can see in my hives there is only few or no drones left which mean that the chance for your new queen to get mated is getting smaller every day. Even if she will mate I would recommend replacing her in the spring as there is no guarantee that sufficient number of males will have a chance to inseminate her.
My recommendation would be to source mated queen which can still lay some eggs to get the colony ready for the winter.
Tom

 

[Marco666]

Thank you.

I fear I might have to go and buy a new queen.
Thank you for the advice.
Marco.

 

[The Drone Ranger]

Marco
Have the bees started queen cells on the brood you put in ?

Sent from my LIFETAB_S1034X using Tapatalk

 

[Marco666]

I will check tomorrow.

 

[B+.]

I will check tomorrow.

Its September....you'll be lucky to buy a queen now and there will be fewer drones available to mate a virgin to (assuming that you are successful in raising one). More than this, they will not be very strong because a queen will not havee time to build her colony up for winter and the workers that are there are getting quite old now. I think, at this time of year, it would be better to unite a colony like this with a queenright colony if you have one.

 

[MuswellMetro]

How do you know that they are queenless?

i have queens that have stopped laying but they are still in there

 

[The Drone Ranger]

Hello Marco
If they are queenless then they will start queen cells
It's a bit late for mating now but it depends where you are
At this time of year a lot of folk may be combining hives which usually leaves a spare queen
So if you see queen cells then post here and if someone is combining they will probably just give you the spare queen for price of postage and cage
If the bees don't start queen cells then it's very likely there will be a queen of some sort already present
Hope that helps


Sent from my LIFETAB_S1034X using Tapatalk

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If they are queenless then they will start queen cells

No - they may start queen cells

But then, maybe not

 

[Millet]

No - they may start queen cells

But then, maybe not

I had a Queen less hive with no eggs present .they could not make Queen cells from that unless they tried to rear Gay drones from a laying worker .

 

[MuswellMetro]

No - they may start queen cells

But then, maybe not

agree, they will even tear down swarm cells if the flow stops, the bees decide not yuo

a three week stop in laying is quite common if a flow stops cos the the bees think there are sufficient bees in the colony, i have hives with no brood, small amount of brood , reasonable brood and a couple still on nine frames of brood

 

[beeno]

agree, they will even tear down swarm cells if the flow stops, the bees decide not yuo

a three week stop in laying is quite common if a flow stops cos the the bees think there are sufficient bees in the colony, i have hives with no brood, small amount of brood , reasonable brood and a couple still on nine frames of brood

Some say that brood production is reduced when there is a flow on because the bees 'make hay while the sun shines' and have less time for brood rearing. How do you account for your colonies being at such different stages then? Different locations?

 

[The Drone Ranger]

No - they may start queen cells

But then, maybe not

Feel free to give your own answer if you don't agree
I have read the original poster introduced a frame of young brood
If they are queenless and don't start queen cells then they will most likely be beyond help
They will certainly be a very poor prospect for queen introduction in my experience




Sent from my LIFETAB_S1034X using Tapatalk

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I just did - you misled the poster. Colonies who are queenless DON'T invariably build QC'S get the facts right before you mount your high horse

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

 

[Marco666]

Hello

Hi everyone.
I'm sure they are queenless because I haven't seen eggs for more then a month now. Fortunately a friend of mine is giving me a feisty colony with a queen. She doesn't want it anymore because they are aggressive. I'm planning to put them together and have a stronger colony. What is the best way of doing it? Thank you all.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I'm sure they are queenless because I haven't seen eggs for more then a month now.

She took from emergence approx 6+ weeks to start laying.
Will believe my gut instinct in future- no QC's on test frame then she's in there somewhere.

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=37890

 

[The Drone Ranger]

I just did - you misled the poster. Colonies who are queenless DON'T invariably build QC'S get the facts right before you mount your high horse

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

What are the circumstances under which the bees fail to raise a queen cell on a test frame and you would still recommend introducing a new queen ?

Some threads invite discussion some ask for advice
There is high horse involved, just pointing out that not every post on the forum will require your expert critique

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What are the circumstances under which the bees fail to raise a queen cell on a test frame

Share with all of us how you stand by your assertion that

If they are queenless then they will start queen cells

the implication that they will do this immediately on introduction of a test frame. It may take two, three or more attempts before they finally decide they're in trouble. It's not just a matter of looking in the first time, seeing no QCs then sitting back and relaxing as 'there's a queen in there somewhere'.
It's the kind of disingenuous statement that will have beginners thinking it's all cut and dried at the first take then wondering in a couple of months why their colony has died.

Yes, there could be a queen in there - on a brood break,newly mated, virgin or just a dud. Or it could just be one of those colonies that carry on oblivious until it's too late.
But I'll just leave you carry on - sometimes it's just not worth the effort.

 

[beeno]

Discussion: "Eyeman it took her 6+ weeks to start laying." With all the test frames going in and presumably the equivalent amount of frames coming out of the hive, there is enough opportunity for a queen being moved out of the hive or a queen cell built into the comb being overlooked. There is no evidence that it is the queen from the original queen cell.
Many times I would not be surprised if the original queen is still there whilst the queen cell left fails and a later one is started.
My take on the world of beekeeping.