I hived a nice swarm and brought it home. It was doing very well with three full frames of capped brood. Last week I noticed a slump in activity so Into it I went. I found:
1. Lots of pollen.
2. Some capped honey on brood frames.
3. Plenty of capped brood.
4. Some larvae.
5. A lot of eggs, and sometimes 2-3 eggs in a cell.
I decided to re-queen so I ordered a queen for this hive and another for one of the others. I just went out to check on this hive and nothing is left but a few emerging bees. All is gone. Where did I drop the ball?
Quote from: yockey5 on June 26, 2011, 07:57:14 PM
I hived a nice swarm and brought it home. It was doing very well with three full frames of capped brood. Last week I noticed a slump in activity so Into it I went. I found:
1. Lots of pollen.
2. Some capped honey on brood frames.
3. Plenty of capped brood.
4. Some larvae.
5. A lot of eggs, and sometimes 2-3 eggs in a cell.
I decided to re-queen so I ordered a queen for this hive and another for one of the others. I just went out to check on this hive and nothing is left but a few emerging bees. All is gone. Where did I drop the ball?
You didn't the bees did. For some reason the hive when queenless or was queenless and went laying worker. The slump in activity was your clue to a problem, which you acted upon promptly. But a new swarm with only three frames of brood, much of it drone brood, because of the laying worker, can make a hive seemingly vanish over night. Once the foragers are worn out and only new bees hatching and only drone brood being developed the hive used up what stores it had in a matter of days.
Mr Bush here is another dollar for you. Multiple eggs per cell is the sign of a laying worker (more likely workers). If you have several hives or a beekeeper buddy that will help you, you should put a frame of open brood in the hive once a week for three weeks after which time you should have stopped the workers from laying and hopefully they are grooming a new queen from the eggs you put in. I was in a similar situation and it worked for me. The open brood gives off pheromones that will cause the workers to stop laying. The eggs provide queen material.
If this works for you thank Michael Bush not me. :-D
Just a question...
Can a young queen start laying 2-3 eggs in the cell in the beginning of her laying cycle? If yes...what is the difference between the young queen and a laying worker laying pattern?
Thank you.
QuoteIf yes...what is the difference between the young queen and a laying worker laying pattern?
Thank you.
Yes but the Queen gets her egg technique's corrected shortly
The worker does not.
This is what I've read
Tommyt
Queen was present, and ALL the eggs were at the bottom of the cell as they should have been.
Quote from: Tommyt on June 27, 2011, 05:06:02 PM
QuoteIf yes...what is the difference between the young queen and a laying worker laying pattern?
Thank you.
Yes but the Queen gets her egg technique's corrected shortly
The worker does not.
This is what I've read
Tommyt
The number of eggs in a cell indicates how many workers have begun laying eggs. When a hive goes laying worker(s) more than one bee will take over the function of the queen. It's possible to have over 2 dozen laying workers in a single hive.
The queen was present and accounted for in this hive.
Quote from: yockey5 on June 28, 2011, 06:22:34 PM
The queen was present and accounted for in this hive.
That was not mentioned in the original post. From the wording of the original posting the conclusion one would draw is that when you went back into requeen the hive you found the conditions you listed. All answers were directed to that implication.
That bit of information would have resulted in the answering being that the queen was a drone layer (unfertilized) which would give the same indications of a laying worker hive. Either way, laying worker or drone laying queen, the hive would die out rapidly with such a small amount of bees, brood to feed, and a dwindling number of adult bees to care for said bees.