What happens if .........

[Tucker1]

If your queen dies during the winter months, .... say for the purpose of illustration, it's early February. What happens? 

Do the workers try to raise a new queen that could be fertilized in the spring?

Or is that the end of it for the hive?
(Assuming no beek intervention)

Regards,
Tucker1

[indypartridge]

In northern climates, the hive is a goner. Even if the queen had been laying prior to dying and the bees made an emergency queen cell, there are no drones. A virgin queen has a relatively small window of time that she can mate otherwise she'll become a drone-layer.

[Scadsobees]

Hmm...not sure how that could happen...there shouldn't be any clumsy beekeepers rooting through the hive to accidentally kill her!!   ;)

Depending on the climate and if they have any brood, they *may* try to raise a new one, but as indy said, she'll be a drone layer, and by April, assuming they survive that long, you will have a weak hive with drones.

That being said, I did a boo boo a few years back and killed a few queens in Oct/Nov, they raised new queens who ended up being drone layers, I think out of 4 hives, two died but 2 survived.  They were very weak and needed new queens early, but with my corrective intervention they did survive.

Rick

[Michael Bush]

Usually bees are better planners and they take good care of a queen during the winter... but sometimes they do.

[Jim134]

If your queen dies during the winter months, .... say for the purpose of illustration, it's early February. What happens? 

Regards,
Tucker1

  If this happing in Massachusetts good-by BEES  :'( :'(


   BEE HAPPY Jim 134  :)

[Robo]

As others have stated,  if your in a cold climate,  your are down a hive.   I personally believe a fair portion of winter losses are due to queen failure.  That is one reason I don't mess with supercedure or emergency queens anymore. 

[Kathyp]

my experience has been more with spring loss.  if i don't check early and they are down on food, the whole hive can crump before i know it.  there  may be bees left in it, but it's so weakened....and perhaps has neglected the queen, to the point that all is lost.  nothing worse than pulling out 10 frames and seeing only the behind of a bunch of bees :-(

[Tucker1]

Thanks for the replies.  I haven't lost a queen during the winter and hopefully won't.  Assuming that queen bees die during random times of the year, it seemed like a reasonable question worth asking. I've been debating replacing one of my queens and haven't come to a decision yet. She's done well and is only about 16 months old. By the time spring rolls around, she'll be 23 months old. It seems like a toss up. We'll have another month of reasonable weather, before the really cold starts to settle in. I was holding to begin harvesting next Saturday. If I replaced her now, it would be after harvest.....assuming I can get a replacement queen. If not, I'll have to wait till spring.

Regards,
Tucker1

[Scadsobees]

Also, queens usually don't die during random times of the year.  Queens are usually killed during random times of the year. (I know this by experience  )

2 years old isn't too bad for a queen.  Chances of her making it through the winter are probably better than the chances of requeening the hive.