my queen has gone maverick on me

slacker361 · July 29, 2010, 07:25:23 PM

Ok I went down to put a honey super on my new hive, i think they are ready for it, and checked the hive again, the queen is going berserk , I now have three (3) deep frames full both sides with brood, i think some one slipped her fertility meds,

also i read some where that the queen likes to lay on the black plastic frames, not mine she is laying on the white frames, doesnt it figure

caticind · July 29, 2010, 07:55:33 PM

My newly-mated queen (after a split) also has a fantastic dense laying pattern... Problem: found 3 capped queen cells in there today.

Not sure whether they are swarming while the swarming's good or trying to supercede that wonderful new queen. They have plenty of space and have not been backfilling. But since I don't have the resources to split again, looks like I will have to wait and see what they do.

AllenF · July 29, 2010, 08:12:57 PM

Never complain about a good laying queen. They are something to be treasured.

slacker361 · July 29, 2010, 08:23:09 PM

Allan I agree with you but isnt it late in the season for this much production of brood or am i mistaken

Kathyp · July 29, 2010, 08:29:12 PM

mine are still laying well. you want a lot of young bees going into winter. don't know when your winter starts, but mine can start by mid September. by October, i have done my last inspection and closed the hives.
don't knock it. you'll have the numbers to get through winter as long as they have plenty of food (and nothing else goes wrong). :-)

AllenF · July 29, 2010, 08:30:33 PM

I am sure she will stop when she needs to. Hopefully she knows what she is doing.

slacker361 · July 29, 2010, 08:44:06 PM

Quote from: AllenF on July 29, 2010, 08:30:33 PM
I am sure she will stop when she needs to. Hopefully she knows what she is doing.

she prob know more than I do LOL

David Stokely · July 31, 2010, 09:15:39 AM

You say it's a new hive. Are you feeding? I got into a problem last year with new hives and trying to help them build up their winter stores by feeding, I kept the queens turned on in the egg laying mode and had huge populations going into winter. . . :( They both starved out over the winter. Apparently I wasn't feeding heavy enough syrup and they took it as a nectar flow. . .So be careful with feeding.

slacker361 · July 31, 2010, 10:48:23 AM

thanks David for the insight ill keep that in mind