Packaged queen bee replaced!

[janislizardi]

I installed a new package of bee on a brand new hive in May '13 in Texas. Progress was solid until we had a tornado nearby and was no longer able to find the queen. I saw some queen caps so I suspected they had replaced the queen and I have confirmed that. I spotted her last Sunday.
Q1: why would my bees replace the original queen? She was doing fine to me
Q2: should I be concerned with the new queen since she is not from controlled queen rearing? I do not the quality of the drones that matted with her.
Q3: hive is thriving, should I just leave it alone?



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[tefer2]

Janis, just be happy that you have a laying queen this late in the season. They normally do a better job than us beekeepers at sorting things out anyway. Welcome to Beemaster.

[Kathyp]

if 2 is true, you answered 3 for yourself.  why would you mess with success?

there are not to many of us who go with "controlled queen rearing"  anymore.  nature seems to do a fine job.

[BeeMaster2]

Ditto above. I like mutts better than buying queens. My bought queen or her daughter, has the largest mite drop of all of my hives. Most of the mutts don't drop mites, most of the time.
Jim

[janislizardi]

Thanks everyone for the reassurance. I am
Happy with my hive progress but I am full of questions :-) as I am new to the forum and beekeeping :-)
I will stick to nature!


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[janislizardi]

Here she is! Enjoy


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[janislizardi]

A other try on the picture. Sorry. I am new to this app. 


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[janislizardi]

I hope to get the right picture this time.


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[TNBeeLady]

Out of 3 hives I started this year with packages, the one that for some reason didn't like their queen & requeened their selves is going the strongest.  I've decided the bees know the best!  And it looks like yours are doing great!

[Michael Bush]

>Q1: why would my bees replace the original queen? She was doing fine to me

But not to them.  She may be making too little pheromones.

>Q2: should I be concerned with the new queen since she is not from controlled queen rearing? I do not the quality of the drones that matted with her.

If it were me, I would have disposed of the package queen myself, if they didn't do it for me, and I would have let them raise a new queen and I HOPE she mates with all the local feral drones who are acclimatized to my area.  I have not had good luck overwintering package queens.

>Q3: hive is thriving, should I just leave it alone?

Of course.

[BeeMaster2]

Janis,
Your queen is visible in the lower left corner of those first 3 pictures, well at least her abdomen is.  :-D
Your bees are doing fine. Enjoy.
Update your location in the Profile tab.
Jim

[janislizardi]

Jim, yes my queen was in the first 3 pics. So sorry I was not savy with this app to select the right picture. I wanted you show you the one picture where she was front and center.

Michael, thank you for your input. I find very interesting that you would rather have the bees raise their own queen. I read over and over about how beekeepers requeen every year or two with a queen of their choice. This is great insight you give me as I continue my reading and learning I will seek for natural methods.


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[janislizardi]

She is definitely laying well :-)
Bees make me so happy!!!
Thanks everyone


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