Good morning,
One of my two hives is queenless, probably as of about two weeks ago. There are still plenty of bees, some few larvae, some capped brood, no eggs, no drones that I can find, as well as no queen (I've never had trouble finding her previously). There is also what appears to be a supercedure cell about 2/3 of the way up one of the central frames, (sorry, I don't have a camera).
I'm thinking I should buy a mated queen and introduce her with a push in cage. My concern is that waiting for the virgin queen to emerge, then mate, could really slow down this hive.
We're in a severe drought here and its kept the girls slow to raise brood anyway. My second hive, which was a slow starter for some reason, is now doing rather better and is drawing comb in their second box. So far, no mites, no beetles, no problems other than the missing queen, thankfully.
Is my thinking reasonable?
Thanks,
Mp
Was this an installation from a new package? Supercedure seems to be an ongoing thing w/ mass produced commercial queens these days. If you are certain she is not there-- waiting on the queen to mate would set your hive back. Also what is in your area for her to mate with. Other beekeeper colonies, ferals etc.
Your best choice if queenless may be to order a new queen.
There appear to be no (or at least very few) feral or kept bees on the island. That is one of the factors in my taking up beekeeping. These are of course packages, started in April. I've had less trouble than many thank goodnes.........
From what I have been learning, if you are going to introduce a queen, you have to get rid of all of the queen cells. If one hatches before you intoduce your new queen, she will probably be killed.
I too am also queenless and decided to let them handle it. I am fortunate to have 3 beeks within a 3 mile radius, so I don't think drones will be an issue.
Good luck and keep us posted.
why not just let them re-queen themselves? sounds like you are most of the way there already. at this time of the year, there should be drones around. buying queens is expensive and the failure rate can be high. yes, it might be slower, but not as slow as losing a queen. sounds like you are only a week or two from a new queen. if you feed, they can lay like crazy and your brood loss will be negligible.
As it turns out, I can't get a queen until next week anyway.
My concerns with letting them take care of themselves are 1) I've not seen any bees, other than mine, in a couple of years (there have to be some of course), and 2) if she does mate successfully, what sort of genes will I be getting. This is south Texas, more or less.
So, we'll see what happens over the next week or so......I'll be gone for a couple of weeks at the end of the month of course, just to complicate matters.
Down there, you don't have to be in a big hurry. You don't really have to get a hive up to a certain level to winter there. That said, AHB might be an issue. I really don't know.