Queenless in kansas city

brendan · June 23, 2009, 12:59:23 AM

I have been checking on my favorite hive weekly and for the last couple or three weeks there is no evidence of a queen. No brood but for a small number of capped drones. I don't see any full queen cells either. Could anyone point me in the direction of some good queen suppliers in my area. I would like to get a survivor type queen vs a particular breed. Any one had any luck finding a good supplier in the midwest to north? Thanks for any help.

Brian D. Bray · June 23, 2009, 02:50:24 AM

Quote from: brendan on June 23, 2009, 12:59:23 AM
I have been checking on my favorite hive weekly and for the last couple or three weeks there is no evidence of a queen. No brood but for a small number of capped drones. I don't see any full queen cells either. Could anyone point me in the direction of some good queen suppliers in my area. I would like to get a survivor type queen vs a particular breed. Any one had any luck finding a good supplier in the midwest to north? Thanks for any help.

Your Favorite hive? That sounds as if you have more than one. If so take a frame of brood, with eggs, from one or more of your other hives and put them into your favorite hive. If they are queenless they will most likely build queen cells to replace her.
It sounds to me like they hive swarmed, it is that time of year, and the new queen is in the procees of mating or hasn't started laying yet.
Bees will tear down the remanants of queen cells almost immediately after the queen hatches (within 24 hours) so they are not there to visually prove a swarm happened.
The brood hatches and quickly replaces the bees that left with the swarm, again removing visual evidence a swarm happened.

Visual evidence of a swarm having occurred is:
1. Lack of eggs and/or larvae.
2. Only brood noticable is capped and it's possible to see no evidence of brood as it has all hatched.
3. Only drone cells are in evidence as they take longer to develop.
4. Bees are acting queenright without evidence of a queen.

I would recommend the brood frame and waiting 10-14 days before panicking.

Bee-Bop · June 23, 2009, 08:37:56 AM

Check with your local bee club, a member will probably have some { one of many good reason to belong to a local club }
It is located in Raytown !

Bee-Bop

riverrat · June 23, 2009, 08:58:55 AM

I would put a frame of eggs in the hive to see if the make a queen cell. if they do and you would still like to buy a queen micheal bush sells survivor queens hes not to far from you and can be found on this board.

Joelel · June 23, 2009, 01:30:24 PM

Quote from: brendan on June 23, 2009, 12:59:23 AM
I have been checking on my favorite hive weekly and for the last couple or three weeks there is no evidence of a queen. No brood but for a small number of capped drones. I don't see any full queen cells either. Could anyone point me in the direction of some good queen suppliers in my area. I would like to get a survivor type queen vs a particular breed. Any one had any luck finding a good supplier in the midwest to north? Thanks for any help.

Take a freme of brood cells with some new laid eggs from an other hive and put in there.Don't leave any bees from the other hive on the frame.

Kathyp · June 23, 2009, 01:42:58 PM

QuoteDon't leave any bees from the other hive on the frame.

there is no problem with leaving nurse bees on the frames.

i second all of the above + if you have no queen, a frame of young brood can help you avoid a laying worker situation while you figure out what to do.

brendan · June 23, 2009, 02:07:19 PM

Thanks for all the help. I have just a couple of questions. How does a hive behave Queenright? Do the bees act differently and is this clear to a novice. Also, I have trouble seeing eggs. Is there some other stage that would indicate eggs are present on a frame if I were to move a frame? Finally, Is it too late in the season to let them raise their own queen from an egg. There seems to be allot of honey in the hive now.

Brian D. Bray · June 24, 2009, 11:32:39 PM

A queenless hive will often put out a roaring or murmuring sound that can be heard from outside the hive. A queenless hive can also be more aggressive, head butting when coming near the hive, clinging to clothes and biting or sting after being opened. But, then, bees being bees a queenless hive can also be absent of these indicators.

Kathyp · June 25, 2009, 12:21:21 AM

if you find a frame with very, very, tiny larvae, you are probably in the right neighborhood. also, if you have a good queen, you'll find eggs on frames of capped brood where some of the brood has hatched out. if you see a lot of bigger larvae, chances are, you have the wrong frame...but not always :-D

try reading glasses, or take pictures of the frames, number them as you do it, run in the house and look at the pics. then go back and pull the frame with eggs. :evil: don't knock it. it works!