Queen Bee has never laid an egg

Wencel · July 16, 2020, 09:57:10 PM

Two months ago I split a hive, which was successful. One month ago, I found the queen and marked her. I did an inspection today and noticed a low population. Upon inspecting the frames, I did no find brood what so ever. Any thoughts, wisdom or knowledge to give me?

Ben Framed · July 16, 2020, 10:12:41 PM

Quote from: Wencel on July 16, 2020, 09:57:10 PM
Two months ago I split a hive, which was successful. One month ago, I found the queen and marked her. I did an inspection today and noticed a low population. Upon inspecting the frames, I did no find brood what so ever. Any thoughts, wisdom or knowledge to give me?

Welcome to beemaster. I would like to answer your question but honestly lack the knowledge and would be speculating. You are sure to receive some good direction from one of our experts. Again welcome.....

van from Arkansas · July 16, 2020, 11:03:58 PM

Did you see the queen? From what you texted:
1. There is no queen?
2. Queen failure if there is a queen?

Can you add a frame of eggs, young larva, capped larva and or add a proven queen if available?

I have seen queens return from mating flights prolapsed with exposed stinger. Rare but this does happen and the queen will not recover. Just one of many reasons why a queen may not lay.

Van

Wencel · July 17, 2020, 06:43:35 AM

Quote from: van from Arkansas on July 16, 2020, 11:03:58 PM
Did you see the queen? From what you texted:
1. There is no queen?
2. Queen failure if there is a queen?

Can you add a frame of eggs, young larva, capped larva and or add a proven queen if available?

I have seen queens return from mating flights prolapsed with exposed stinger. Rare but this does happen and the queen will not recover. Just one of many reasons why a queen may not lay.

Van

Yes, I saw the queen.

I did not see a stinger but will check again.

I will add a frame from another hive with egg and larva. Thanks for the help.

iddee · July 17, 2020, 08:07:16 AM

Find her and kill her. If she still has queen pheromones, they will not raise a new one from the eggs.

van from Arkansas · July 17, 2020, 10:03:23 AM

Quote from: iddee on July 17, 2020, 08:07:16 AM
Find her and kill her. If she still has queen pheromones, they will not raise a new one from the eggs.

Absolutely AGREE with what ID texted, kill the queen first before adding eggs/larva.

Wencel · July 17, 2020, 08:16:25 PM

Thanks for the advice. At this point, the hive is honey bound (4 frames). I added a new frame to see what happens. I am leaving for 10 days. When I return, if she hasn't started earning her keep, she's as good as dead.

FloridaGardener · July 18, 2020, 03:26:32 PM

When you add frames for her to lay in, they must be drawn out and empty. (Not just foundation!) If you don't have any, a fellow beekeeper might. Typically a queen won't walk over honey so i wouldn't advise empty "stickies." The workers might just fill them up if forage is coming in. The queen needs dry comb.

If it's very hot where you are, she make take a break. My smaller colonies have been CLUSTERED tightly over the brood nest because of the heat index. They are keeping brood COOL and the nest of the new nucs is not expanding. Sometimes when it's too hot the bees won't fly in the afternoon. I've just added some shade overhead for them. If were you, I'd fix those two problems (space, and temperature) for 7-10 days before I killed the queen.

PS - I had a split that I thought was unsuccessful. When I was just about to combine the "failure" I saw first larvae. At that date it was 7 weeks from from the split.

Michael Bush · July 19, 2020, 03:06:00 PM

In my experience, if you can't find the queen, eggs and larvae every week for three weeks usually will get a new queen raised somewhere in that sequence. But if you can remove her that is best.