I don't know what to do!! All seemed well, then....

BillyMac · June 02, 2009, 10:55:02 PM

Hikage,
I'll try to make this concise. I hived 3# pack bees. Queen released, 2 1/2 weeks later no queen, no eggs, no brood. Requeened with queen shipped overnight from Georgia (I live in NY). Queen was accepted and I assumed laying as I saw eggs and brood about 5 days after new queen was released. I also saw new marked queen on comb acting normally. Today the weather was warm so I sat watching bees assuming all was well. This is about 1 1/2 weeks after installing new queen. Hive was active but not real busy. I saw a worker exit hive carrying something. I saw her drop it and went to see what it was. It was a part of a larva (looked headless). What the heck? I looked around hive and saw literally only a few more but they were dead almost completely formed white larva. I figured I'd better see what was going on in hive but had to walk to house and get some things and do some chores. I got back to hive about an hour later ready to inspect and to my horror there was the marked queen dead just outside the entrance to hive. :'( I looked inside and saw some scattered brood and capped brood but all the capped brood were drone cells. The hive is struggling. Maybe two frames drawn comb (deeps). I have another hive beside this one that seems to be doing much better. I'm new to this and am confused and disappointed at today's turn of events. Any info. or thoughts or suggestions is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
BillyMac

sc-bee · June 03, 2009, 12:14:18 AM

Think maybe you accidentally killed her during inspection? I just killed one two weeks ago :(. 1 1/2 weeks is a little long to be just seeing her though.

Just a thought :-\

Don't know about the possibility of the old queen still being there and offing the new one. Takes a while for package queens to start laying sometimes. Possible she was still there.

Maybe others will have a better explanation.

BillyMac · June 03, 2009, 08:57:22 AM

Sc-bee
Thanks for your thoughts. I didn't inspect hive until after I saw dead queen. I was thinking that the original queen could have still been in there but the presence of drone cells is what is throwing me. Would a laying worker kill the queen or cause these problems. Very frustrating :? Also, any consideration for disease as probable cause.
BillyMac

Hethen57 · June 03, 2009, 10:27:49 AM

Excessive drone cells alone, does not indicate "no queen". I have one package that made way too many drone cells out of the gate, and now they have spent 2 weeks aborting most of them and now on the second cycle the brood pattern looks more typical. My guess is that the packages are made up when there are not many drones in the hives, so the bees think they need a bunch out of the gate. Likely that dead queen was killed by another queen, but you need to keep checking for brood. I would give the hive a frame of brood from the stong hive to keep it's numbers up and possibly give them a chance to make a queen if they are queenless.

BillyMac · June 03, 2009, 05:02:08 PM

Hethen57
Thanks for the info. I think I will try and give the hive some brood from the other good hive. Right now I think that is my only option. I appreciate all the info on this website!!
BillyMac

mgmoore7 · June 03, 2009, 05:11:43 PM

Yes, give them a frame from you 2nd hive with eggs. Be sure there are eggs. Then when those eggs hatch (3.5 days after they were layed), they will make queens out of some of them. This is a point to be very careful in the hive so that you don't mess up those queen cells.

I would check about 4-5 days after inserting the frame with eggs, and gently ensure they are making cells and then leave them alone for almost 3 weeks and then you should have a laying queen.

sc-bee · June 03, 2009, 10:29:27 PM

>I looked inside and saw some scattered brood and capped brood but all the capped brood were drone cells.

Drone laying queens are also possible.

BillyMac · June 04, 2009, 10:23:07 PM

Hi all,
I agree, either laying worker or drone laying queen. I got hold of a local beek who has over 50 hives and has been doing it a long time. He was gracious enough to come over and look at the hives. He was able to find my queen in the good hive but couldn't find one in the bad hive. His conclusion was a laying worker. I can't tell you how much I appreciate him coming over. There's nothing like being able to look into the hive and getting an experienced eye to look with you. He is going to see if he has a nuc with queen that he can place in the hive. We will shake off the bees currently in the hive a little distance from the hive and see if that works. I always new bee people were good people. Always willing to help each other. I'll let you all know how it goes. Thanks everyone for your input.
BillyMac