Wheres the Queen?

pidge121 · Sep 14, 2023

Hi All,

Looking for a wee but of help on this. One of my hives probably my strongest one, I can't find the queen and there appears to be no eggs (although going to check that again when theres a good weather spell again in Scotland), larvae, capped brood or queen cells, plenty of bees easily over 9 frames. I thought they might have swarmed last week with the good weather as I took the supers off a few weeks back.

I was just wondering if its normal to have a brood break this time of the year, maybe due to the apivar strips? or would they swarm but leave no resources behind to make a new queen?

Thanks for any help

jenkinsbrynmair · Sep 14, 2023

pidge121 said:
I was just wondering if its normal to have a brood break this time of the year,

yes

Bees wouldn't swarm without leaving QC's

pidge121 · Sep 14, 2023

jenkinsbrynmair said:
yes

Bees wouldn't swarm without leaving QC's

Cheers for clearing up, thought it might be just that normally shes quite easy to spot

user 819 · Sep 14, 2023

Likely gone off lay , they can and will if forage is poor or none incoming and also some treatments can cause them to go off lay. She is highly likely to be in there some where.
Suggest putting a 4 pint feeder on and filling with syrup a few times to see if the sudden in flow of stores encourages her back to lay, though she may not start again until the apivar effect wanes.

It is why I prefer OA sublimination, it rarely puts queens off lay . In fact none of my queens have gone off lay this summer. One may see a reduced laying rate but not off lay.

pidge121 · Sep 14, 2023

Cheers Hemo,

I have been feeding them some 1:1 syrup but won't be giving them anymore for now there must have been about 7frames of stores and then 3 empty drawn frames although I'm not sure if there was eggs in those empty looking frames

enrico · Sep 14, 2023

Not wishing to be condescending but I stopped checking my hives a few weeks ago. Try and have a reason to go in other than curiosity. If you kill or injure your queen at this time of the year then ......