Opinions

[GSF]

I had a friend call me the other evening with a question. Here's the scenario; One deep super, full of bees, nectar/capped honey, very small area on frame with capped brood and medium to large brood, no eggs, couple of swarm/queen/supercedure cells, queen nowhere to be seen.  So he scrapes the queen cells, adds another caged queen with candy. He checks on her, the candy is ate through. The queen and attendants are dead in cage, more q cells, now no eggs or larva. I have a couple of theories but the evidence contradicts it. The bees were either a package/swarm or split. So we're guess European bees with a E. queen introduced. Any opinions?

[Michael Bush]

There is a virgin queen loose in the hive.

[BeeMaster2]

I agree with Michael.
Were there any opened queen cells?
Virgin queens are hard to see.
Jim

[GSF]

That's what I thought. However there were swarm cells. He tore them out, then placed a caged mated queen in the hive, whom they killed but still made more q cells. The first cells were on the bottom the second group they made were in the middle of the frame.

[Michael Bush]

If they are indeed queenless they only have a four day window from the old queen was last laying to when there is no larvae young enough to make a queen.  So either there is a laying queen (but not laying enough that he's finding eggs yet) or they have laying workers.  I would expect scattered brood with laying workers and the only caps to be domed and those would be few.  If so then the queen cells have drone eggs in them and he's dealing with laying workers.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm