Dead Queen - Early Season

[markmp]

Hi,

Looking for some help on what to do.

I went through a top bar hive on Tuesday and found the queen dead.  There was no brood evident at any stage and there were 2-3 capped queen cells.  The hive was full of bees and lots of honey and pollen.  We are having an early spring (Calgary) so there is lots of pollen and dandelions.

I have a second hive and it is doing well, but I have not seen any drones - flying or brood.  Some others in the area have seen drone brood, but not much.

Suggestions I have heard are to obtain a mated queen (I haven't been able to find one yet), move a bar of brood to the queenless hive from the queen right hive, combine the two hives together and then possibly split when they start preparing to swarm.

What would you recommend?

Thanks

[don2]

I would add a frame of brood from a strong hive. Make sure there are unhatched eggs as well as young brood that does cover the bottom of the cell. In the event the queen cell that you say are in the hive don't pan out, or if the bees see fit to make more new ones then that will bee good. If the cells you saw are good the bees will most likely not build more, but the frame of brood will help boost the hive till it gets going again. If there are capped queen cells I'd say the queen has been dead several days, a week or more. Hope this helps. d2

[markmp]

Went into the hive today and saw a large healthy queen (my previous inspection where I saw the dead queen and capped queen cells was 6 days ago). I also saw a couple of capped drone cells, a couple uncapped larvae and some eggs (I think).

Because of what I saw I did not add a bar from my other hive.

The hive (TBH) was also loaded with honey and pollen. If this queen is actually mated, I think by biggest risk now is swarming due to lack of room. I guess supering is the way to go.

Any thoughts on likelihood this queen is mated (note it is early season here - lots blooming but I haven't seen any drones yet)? Is it possible to tell visually?

[don2]

The only way you will be able to tell if she is mated is to wait till some brood is capped. then you can tell the drone from the worker brood. how will you super a TBH?  If there is a couple frames capped with honey only, I would cut those out and put the bars back in. Sounds like you didn't make your hive long enough.  d2