Vanished Queen?

[malawi2854]

Just thought I would run this by you all...

I collected an absolutely miniscule swarm from a trampoline back on 19th May - and have been determined to get it to be a productive colony this year - it had been going quite well - albeit rather slow.

My queen started laying quite quickly, and the weekend before last, the first of her brood started to emerge - GREAT I thought...

Last week, no sign of the queen, but assumed I must be blind, I saw a few eggs.... so was happy.

This weekend though, still no sign of HRH - I looked especially hard, an in such a small colony, I don't think even I could have missed her! Also, no sign of any eggs this week - most upsetting.

I just wondered if anyone had any ideas what might have happened to her?

There are no queen cells, absolutely categorically not - they only cover 1 1/2 frames - and the wax is beautifully straight, so no chance one is "hiding".

I ran through the various situations I could think of...

Swarmed - exceptionally unlikely, I'd have thought? - they were FAR too small to divide, and no sign of queen cells (not even play cups).

Accidental Regicide - it is possible I damaged her - but surely, there would have been the eggs she laid that day, in which case they would have started making a new queen cell around it?

Peasant Revolt - possible she had something wrong with her, who knows - but again, I would expect there to be queen cells?


Why oh why?

It's not the end of the world - I have another nuc that was a small swarm, which I am thinking I will probably unite with, but it is a shame - I thought I would get another colony out of them

 

[Hivemaker.]

Nosemic queen perhaps,sometimes they just stop laying,and then drop dead.

 

[malawi2854]

Nosemic, as in afflicted by Nosema, I assume?

Is there anything I should do as a precaution to this little colony before potentially uniting it with another?

 

[Tom Bick]

Nosema Ceranae can affect the queen and stop her producing pheromones or stop laying.

It has no real obvious outward symptoms apart from say the colony slow to build up.

Nosema Apis is the more common form of Nosema and has a less effect on the queen with the noticeable symptoms of dysentery in or on the hive.

Testing is the only real way to confirm one way or other.

 

[Headnavigator]

Interesting, I had queens - one last years, one this - simply disappear from my two colonies at the end of May, as did quite a few beekeepers I know - 'going Q-' seems to be a feature this year. There were no symptoms whatever of nosema in the hives so it hadn't occurred to me, but could they have been asymptomatic except for the queen? If so might the colonies be carrying it and reinfect the new queens?

 

[Torq]

My time scale

Here's my little swarm story/timescale

4th June. Picked up swarm.

12th June. Inspected. Eggs observed.

27th June. Inspected. 12 capped queen cells!! Broke most of them down.

1st July. Queen emerged.


So in less than a month a laying queen absconded or was replaced. 15 day gap between inspections didn't help! By my calculations the new queen was layed on the 15th

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I've had a couple of queens do the same thing. Dissappear or just stop laying. You might get a few eggs later on and think she's got going again. Nosema Ceranae is my suspicion.
Maybe Fumidil B this autumn.

 

[malawi2854]

Thank you all - very interesting!

No signs of bee poop anywhere it shouldn't be - but perhaps it is this other form of Nosema that affects the queen.

I think it is probably worth treating with Fumidil B, as Hebeegeebee suggests later in the year - just to be on the safe side.

Should I reconsider uniting this colony with another now? Or can I unite, and then treat all of them together?

They are both swarms - so it might be worth treating the other swarm too, just a precaution - and if they're both in the same box - mores then better!