Requeening

hooyaman · September 19, 2007, 12:02:53 PM

I have 3 hives that I checked and found only capped brood, but no eggs. I live in southeast Missouri, and was wondering if my queens quit laying because of the time of year or if they died. Sould i look again or wait until spring and requeen.

randydrivesabus · September 19, 2007, 01:45:45 PM

i think it would be unusual for 3 queens in 3 different hives to all die at the same time.

BMAC · September 19, 2007, 02:08:06 PM

Hooman I live in Western Mo. The hives I checked the other day, my queens are still laying.. Have you guys seen a real lack of rain lately???

hooyaman · September 19, 2007, 10:21:58 PM

yea, it has really been dry around her. when i was in the hives there were bees hatching out, but no eggs or larva. should i not worry about it ?

Kathyp · September 19, 2007, 10:44:48 PM

was there any honey or pollen stored? seems odd that you would lose all 3 queens. maybe they need a little feeding?

Michael Bush · September 19, 2007, 10:54:12 PM

Most of mine have cut way back on brood, but if you look close you can find a few eggs and a few open brood. Yours might have shut down. We are in a dearth. Usually they don't stop until about October.

BMAC · September 19, 2007, 11:01:32 PM

I agree with Micheal. Last year all the queens in this area shut down in late August because of the dearth we had. We have had some rain here in the KC area lately and the hives I have looked at are laying eggs and bringing in some fall nectar with a few frames of larva.

Hmm. Maybe I will get some wildflower honey this year.

That is some fairly tasty mead....

hooyaman · September 19, 2007, 11:11:07 PM

ok. I will try not to worry. This is only my second year beekeeping and i dont want to lose my bees. What do you all think about putting queen excluders on all my hives and check them again on friday. Try to find the queens and if i dont, mayby split each hive into nucs and checking every 2 hours until I find the queens. This way I wont have so many bees getting in the way, because I have a lot of bees in each hive. They are very strong. what dou you all think of that idea ?

Michael Bush · September 20, 2007, 12:32:45 AM

>what dou you all think of that idea ?

It's one way to find a queen. Here are more tips:

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

hooyaman · September 20, 2007, 01:40:10 AM

I read your article on finding. It was very interesting and very helpful. thnx very much.

Kathyp · September 20, 2007, 12:08:16 PM

thought of one more thing when i went to MBs link. lots of people have posted pics of their queen on frames. if you do a search, you'll probably find lots to practice with.