Why are workers making new queen cells when the newly-emerged queen hasn't even started laying yet?

[Polyanwood]

Bad luck Orpheus. Looks like they may have swarmed again.

 

[newportbuzz]

or both queens got killed somehow at the same time. check to see if all the queen cells are roughly the same age. they will be all the same age if queen dead and range over a week or more if swarming.

 

[oliver90owner]

Bad luck Orpheus. Looks like they may have swarmed again.

As Polyandwood, except that I would guess these queens ar the offspring of mothers bought in from some reputable source that sold you some swarmy bees.

Probably very docile bees, but lousy swarmers. If so, it is likely to happen again, this season. Loads of swarms and very little honey; the trait may well get diluted as they mate with other drones, but don't count on it - and the next generation may not be quite as docile, either.

That is my take on it; I might be right or wrong, just a guess, but.... tell us more.

 

[Orpheus64]

Thanks for your replies, my first thought was that they had both swarmed, it certainly has all the indications of swarmimg. Both colonies were supplied to my in April 11 by a member of our association so I don't know the provenance of the queens other than I know that that person breeds his own queen. One was Blue and one was White. They overwintered well and I set one up with a snelgrove board and the other up as demaree. Unfortunately a deer or a badger knocked one of the colonies over in April and whilst it did not topple completely over it fell against the adjacent hive and I think that is whar prompted the two colonies to swarm as both top brood boxes were disturbed. But as said previously they then generated new queens and the rest is history. I'll take a look today or tomorrow and see what is going on.

 

[susbees]

but numerous sealed QCs in both colonies.

Several respected queen breeders in the UK have a QC limit for breeder queens. Although not one of them I wouldn't let any colony requeen itself if it produced more than half a dozen developed QCs in swarm preparation.

 

[Stromnessbees]

Frequent supercedure and pesticide contamination

There's another thread on this forum which mentions frequent supercedure, and I am a bit surprised that I am the only one pointing out a possible connection to systemic neonicotinoid pesticideds, mostly used on oilseed rape crops.

There's of course another reason why your bees might fail:

sublethal poisoning with systemic neonic pesticides.

If you are within foraging range of fields that have been planted with neonic treated seeds then your bees might bring home contaminated nectar and pollen from either the crop itself or plants growing in the verges.

If the contamination is quite low, you might not notice any direct toxic effects, but the colony could stop thriving and the queens might fail.

Early supercedure seems to have become a hallmark of areas with high rates of neonic treated oilseed rape: the bees bring in a lot of OSR honey, but soon after that the colonies stop developing and could even try to replace their queens.

If you have any chance, track down the farmer growing the stuff and investigate what he has planted, if you explain the problems you are having with your bees he might reconsider re. using those pesticides again.

 

[tonybloke]

There's another thread on this forum which mentions frequent supercedure, and I am a bit surprised that I am the only one pointing out a possible connection to systemic neonicotinoid pesticideds, mostly used on oilseed rape crops.

Early supercedure seems to have become a hallmark of areas with high rates of neonic treated oilseed rape:

a hallmark? evidence please, or are you surmising the whole scene from one or two posts? see Murray ITLD and Chris Luck for contra-evidence.

 

[Magners Bee]

Two of my colonies have flummoxed me. They both swarmed in April despite swarm management techniques, they both developed new queens and up until three weeks ago were both laying and building up, then when I inspected them last Saturday both appear to be queenless, no brood seen, but numerous sealed QCs in both colonies. They had food, room to grow, they were only covering 6 to 7 of the 11 frames, both colonies had a super on. Seeing as the bees have more experience than me I've left them to it. Hopefully they'll develop new queens and build up again.

This describes our situation exactly except we have only one hive. All going well, then last Saturday the colony appeared queen less. We checked again yesterday and they have around 8 capped queen cells. Our mentor says either drop the queen cells down to the 3 strongest cells, or let them sort it themselves. As newbies this year, we are also inclined to let them be!

 

[Silly Bee]

I've had similar, two queen cells into a nuke, few flying bees, and house bees (Dave Cushman style, checked yesterday, queen mated and laying, six new queen cells. Didn't want to risk a swarm, only a small colony, reluctantly knocked them down.

 

[Polyanwood]

I wouldn't let any colony requeen itself if it produced more than half a dozen developed QCs in swarm preparation.

I like this advice. Swarmy bees are a pain.