Too Late For Supercedure?

[Stevie Day]

Is it too late for a hive to requeen itself?

I inspected hive 2 yesterday (12 days since last full inspection due to weather & other reasons).
To find no sign of the queen, no uncapped larvae or eggs, only capped worker cells on 5 frames & 2 sealed supercedure cells on adjacent frames.

I dont think the hive has swarmed as there seems to be about the same number of bees as at last inspection.

The hive which is a brood box & one super, seemed to be thriving since the demise & replacement of the last queen.

My question is. Is it too late for a new queen to mate? Neither of my hives as any drones now.

 

[birdsandbees]

I've a Nuc with an emergency virgin queen in it, I bought them a nice inseminated queen but she dissapeared after a week and all that remained was three QC's the new one emerged last weekend but as of yet no eggs laid, I have seen a couple of drones in another hive so I'm hoping, there may be a chance for them yet.

 

[Finman]

.
You surely get mated queend there. By such.

.

 

[Swarm]

Bees tend to supersede in early Autumn, the Equinox is a couple of weeks away yet.

 

[drstitson]

beeks are frequently surprised in spring to find a new queen who obviously turned up after regular inspections stopped.
so not too late.

 

[BrianO]

Speaking of regular inspections, as OP detailed.

Just my opinion based on what I have done in past.

Inspections should be minimal now, monitoring stores and treating. Would not be going through the brood box now. Let them get on with it building up stores.

Opening them up now weekly will set them back at a time they should be concentrating on building up winter stores.

 

[beeno]

It is important to ensure that the colony has a laying queen and once you know that I agree that there is no need to inspect again.
And yes IMHO it is too late for supersedure if there are better alternatives.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

There will be a few drones about - you might be lucky with the weather. If not, unite with a good colony unless you can find a queen somewhere.

If you are worried that you won't be able to find a virgin, then remove queencells now and unite or install a new queen.

 

[Stevie Day]

Thanks for the replies.
Decided to play the waiting game as the supplier I've bought from before is out of stock.

The new queen should hatch in about 5 days, so will see in about 3-4 wks if she's a good un or a drone layer.

 

[Teemore]

Came across and marked a mated and laying supercedure Queen last Saturday in one of my own hives and was helping a friend look at some of his bees and found a newly emerged queen (still drying out) beside the cell she had emerged from and her mum was still laying on the adjacent frame.

 

[Roola]

I've one colony which has mother and daughter in and has had for the last 4 weeks... waiting to see what happens.

 

[bees knees]

I have a small colony that I have recently united with a queenless one and now there are 2 q cells and no new brood. I was going to post to ask if any chance a new q will get mated at this time of year. I was thinking no hope but this thread gives me some hope. Not quite sure what happened during the unite but it certainly hasn't gone smoothly. Any comments / advice most welcome. I'm about to feed them for the winter.

 

[beeno]

I have a small colony that I have recently united with a queenless one and now there are 2 q cells and no new brood. I was going to post to ask if any chance a new q will get mated at this time of year. I was thinking no hope but this thread gives me some hope. Not quite sure what happened during the unite but it certainly hasn't gone smoothly. Any comments / advice most welcome. I'm about to feed them for the winter.

Hopefully you got the queen and she will tear down the QCs?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I have a small colony that I have recently united with a queenless one and now there are 2 q cells and no new brood. I was going to post to ask if any chance a new q will get mated at this time of year. I was thinking no hope but this thread gives me some hope. Not quite sure what happened during the unite but it certainly hasn't gone smoothly. Any comments / advice most welcome. I'm about to feed them for the winter.

Was one side hopelessly queenless? sometimes if there is quite a short gap between making one side Q- and then uniting the Q- side can make emergency QC's and kill the existing queen shortly after the unite.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Was one side hopelessly queenless? sometimes if there is quite a short gap between making one side Q- and then uniting the Q- side can make emergency QC's and kill the existing queen shortly after the unite.

What would you consider "quite a short gap" JBM?
I have removed old queen during the day and united that evening with no problems but much prefer making the colony hopelessly queenless as it is much much safer.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What would you consider "quite a short gap" JBM?
I have removed old queen during the day and united that evening with no problems but much prefer making the colony hopelessly queenless as it is much much safer.

I think it's very much luck of the draw - Sometimes you can wait a few hours and get away with it but I'd prefer to get the queen out, paper on, other colony on top - done. or wait and make them hopelessly Q-.

 

[bees knees]

Queenless colony was definitely hopelessly so. Pretty sure we killed her off with maqs. Treated 2 of our colonies with maqs this year and pretty sure it killed off queens in both. The maqs has gone in the bin, it's back to apilife var and oxalic for us. We've had a pretty bad year and now our last colony looks pretty dodgy. Think I'll feed though and keep my fingers crossed. Hoping for better luck / better beekeeping skills next year. Going to mug up a bit over the winter I think.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I'm about to feed them for the winter.

Best not to fill them up with winter stores just yet, not until you have sorted out the queen situation, if they have a virgin queen she may well get mated with the decent weather that is forecast, if not, then remove her and introduce a mated queen.

 

[bees knees]

Thanks. Will hold off and see what's happening. Just worried we are running out of time a bit but at least the weather has picked up. They are low on stores so will just give them a little to keep them going and watch and wait. Was worried there would be no chance of q mating but you have all reassured me that this is entirely possible still.

 

[Stevie Day]

Just a quick update;

Checked hive 5 days after noticing absence of queen & presence of 2 QCs. The 2 QCs had either hatched & then stripped down, or the original queen still present & bees decided not to supercede.

So decided to leave hive alone for a couple of wks & wait & see. After 2 wks of fretting, worrying, nail biting.... (you know how it is). I inspected brood box & low & behold a new queen & 2 partial frames of larvae & capped worker brood