Queen, no brood

Aroc · April 09, 2020, 10:58:12 PM

So here in Montana we are just getting to open our overwintered hives. So far we?ve only done two.

Standard procedure on our first inspection is usually cleanup and reverse boxes.

Today?s hive had a lot of bees....no brood...except for a few that were capped and ready to emerge. Noticed a couple queen cells that weren?t capped and one that was. I left it alone as I continued my search. Eventually discovered a queen. I then went ahead and destroyed the capped queen cell.

My question is why no brood at this time of year? Could this be a virgin queen? If so I really don?t see her getting mated yet as there are no drones that I can see. Could she have taken a break causing the other bees to attempt a re-queen?

At any rate we are going back in a couple weeks to see how she?s doing.

We put a top feeder on as there isn?t anything out there to speak of yet.

Any thoughts?

Donovan J · April 10, 2020, 12:30:25 AM

She was probably having issues or getting close to the end of her life and you destroyed the bees last effort to make another queen

Oldbeavo · April 10, 2020, 08:03:44 AM

Xerox,
My thoughts also, supersedure in progress.
Hopefully they will finish the other QC's or make some more.
We will have hives overwinter and have no brood, the queen will shrink down and be very hard to find. We let them sort it out and leave a note on the lid.
Do you have drone brood in other hives, if so open some and if the larvae have purple eyes they will probably mature enough for a QC that is being made now.

Aroc · April 10, 2020, 10:10:29 AM

Quote from: Xerox on April 10, 2020, 12:30:25 AM
She was probably having issues or getting close to the end of her life and you destroyed the bees last effort to make another queen

She?s only a year old.

Aroc · April 10, 2020, 12:06:37 PM

Quote from: Oldbeavo on April 10, 2020, 08:03:44 AM
Xerox,
My thoughts also, supersedure in progress.
Hopefully they will finish the other QC's or make some more.
We will have hives overwinter and have no brood, the queen will shrink down and be very hard to find. We let them sort it out and leave a note on the lid.
Do you have drone brood in other hives, if so open some and if the larvae have purple eyes they will probably mature enough for a QC that is being made now.

Haven?t seen any drone brood of any significance yet. I?m going check on her in a couple weeks. Probably add some brood from another hive. It?s still very cold up here. Below 30 again this weekend.

guitarstitch · April 10, 2020, 03:40:36 PM

Quote from: Aroc on April 10, 2020, 10:10:29 AM
Quote from: Xerox on April 10, 2020, 12:30:25 AM
She was probably having issues or getting close to the end of her life and you destroyed the bees last effort to make another queen

She?s only a year old.

Age doesn't always coincide with queen health. No brood and queen cells could be a strong indicator of a failing queen.

If the bees are making queen cells, they're either swarming or superseding. Regardless, destroying queen cells is a fruitless endeavor as the bees have already made up their mind as to what they want to do. The best option is to remove the frame with queen cells to another box and make a split. If the old queen dies, you can always re-combine. If not, you simulated a swarm. Either way, you win.

Oldbeavo · April 10, 2020, 06:58:39 PM

If the bees have decided to supersede the queen, then saving her is a waste of time. Been there, done that.
The rescued queens turn out to be useless, the bees have already decided she was not good enough, the bees know what they are doing.
Age doesn't mean anything in supersedure, if you mark your queens you will be surprise how many times supersedure occurs.
We have had queens superseded in 3-4 months, a lot of the time they are what I call skinny queens, their abdomen doesn't seem large enough as if her ovaries are not working at full pace.