I had seven hives out of seven make it through here in South Central Wisconsin and 6 of the 7 are laying in nicely with brood. One however is only putting in drone brood. I put a frame of brood with eggs in last weekend because I figured I had a laying worker. Just checked it a few minutes ago and no changes. I did however find the queen, which is unusual for me int he first place! She was moving around freely and was new last spring with the package (Italian). I have three Carny's coming next Saturday and was going to do splits on the three strongest hives. Now I'm planning 2 splits and a re-queen.
Does anyone out there see any reason to let this one keep going? Is she just stuck in drone mode and will pop out of it eventually? I have seen eggs to the side of the cells, etc.
Thanks,
Greg
Compare to the others which you have already done. Sounds like a poorly mated queen.
You have several options:
-Re-queen- quickest solution to maintain your numbers if you can get a new queen
-Combine- you could always split latter
-Or remove her and get eggs form a desired queen and let them raise their own (if you have plenty of drones in your area at this time).
- This time of year, for me, a swarm cell is usually easy for me to come by
I'm sure there are other options I have missed :-D
It all depends on what you expect from the hive. The 3rd choice of course the one taking the longest period of time and thus allowing longer for the hive to build up.
A big problem with buying queens from queen breeders is that they have a tendancy to fail. That being the case don't blame the breeders cause it's really not thier fault. It has more to do with what is put in the hive to control mites and how it effects the drone's sperm production. So basically you have a failing queen or what most people call a drone laying queen. This happens when she runs out of sperm to produce fertilized eggs and there is no brood young enough to produce a supercedure queen from. So in a last ditch effort she will lay drone eggs everywhere trying to ensure that the genetics are passed on. So you have two choices pinch her and add a new queen or add brood and hopefully they will produce thier own queen.
I put a frame of brood and eggs in last weekend and checked it today. No supercede or swarm cells. I do have a queen coming Saturday and will re-queen. The really weird thing is this is the same have that went into November with tons of brood compared to the others. It's almost like she over did it last fall and doesn't have any sperm. Lots of bees yet and they are sucking down syrup! If there isn't any worker brrod by Wednesday, she'll get pinched and I'll intro a new queen Saturday.
Greg
All the options have one item in common. "Pinch her". Then you can do any of many things. They will never accept a queen or raise one from larva, as long as she is still there.
Hopefully I was clear enough in the options above :-D If not as id said they all have one thing in common pinch her.
And it is not uncommon to get a queen that lays one season and not the next ---- unfortunately :'(
That is why alot of folks are turning to raise their own local queens. That way they know the history of the Queen!
Quote from: iddee on April 23, 2011, 08:20:51 PM
All the options have one item in common. "Pinch her". Then you can do any of many things. They will never accept a queen or raise one from larva, as long as she is still there.
So Say We All!!! lol