Lazy Queen

Mason · June 22, 2010, 12:56:56 PM

I have one hive that has been re-queening and making supersedure cells since day one. They do have a queen now but she is not laying very well at all. Maybe 6 or 7 queen cells going. The cells are loaded with honey and pollen but not much brood.

What do you guys suggest.

Let the bees alone to make yet another new queen?

Buy a new queen and smash the old one?

Smash the queen and combine into one larger super hive?

other?

donm · June 22, 2010, 07:44:33 PM

I had one similar to that....lazy and other stuff. They didn't keep making cells but the behavior was just weird, nothing they did was ever as it should be. Not to mention they were a little HOT! I ordered a new queen and pinched the old one when the package arrived. The install went well and she is laying up a storm. I would recommend not perpetuating the behavior of the current queen by allowing them to make another one.....bring in new genes. Just my thoughts.

riverrat · June 22, 2010, 10:57:04 PM

I think I would inserts some empty drawn comb into the brood nest to give her room to lay. If the cells have honey and pollen in them she may just need room.

tim adams · June 22, 2010, 11:09:09 PM

I have a hive that's sounds alot like yours. Really spotty brood but mine is not honey bound she's just laying bad. I'm thinking about pinching her and combining with a nuc with a good laying queen.
Tim Adams

BjornBee · June 22, 2010, 11:11:25 PM

Mason,
What would you say to a breeder that refused to pinch bad queens, let bees raise queens from failing or poor queens, and perpetuated queen lines from failing or poor stock, etc. You would probably be looking for another queen breeder.

Look at yourself as a breeder. Every now and then, you need to cull the bad. Every now and then, you need to improve your beeline. Having bees raise the next generation of queen(s) from poor stock to start with, just perpetuates weak or poor genetics.

I've seen some queens continuously supercede queen after queen, all summer long. It could be a chemically tainted queen, poor genetics, or even viral/bacterial issues. And we know that this gets passed along in the eggs of the queens to the next generation. So when you have a bad queen, letting them raise your next queen may be just continuing the situation. You raise good queens from good queens. You don't raise good queens from bad queens.
If you have a bad queen and see the bees supersede for no apparent reason, sometimes it's just better to add a new queen and break the cycle.

Mason · June 24, 2010, 12:48:59 PM

Ok,

new queen it is. As a new beek killing off the queen just seems a little bold without some validation. Thanks for the support.

Mason · June 28, 2010, 04:08:42 PM

Well I did it I think.

I went to the suspect hive and did a complete examination looking for the queen. No luck I couldn't find her. I cut out all the queen cells and hung the new queen with a piece of tape over the candy. Went out again the next day and went through every frame twice using my gf for a second set of eyes. She is a much better queen spotter than myself but still no queen to pinch. I hung the new queen again with a piece of tape over the hole.

My plan is to allow her to hand for a few more days. Give another good effort to spot and rouge queens and if I can't find any release the new queen.

I feel somewhat certain that by the time I got to the hive with the new queen the hive was queenless and waiting for a queen cell to hatch. They sure were ornery which I have heard is a sign of a queenless hive. I also couldn't find any eggs. Only old capped brood and mostly drone brood.

Long live the queen!