this stinks!!!

rgy · May 29, 2010, 02:22:54 PM

went into one of our new hives today and it is Queenless!!!! we had larvae just 2 weeks ago and now nothing!!!!! Now what??? try to find a queen? add a nuc if we can find one? it looked to us (both new bees) that there are a couple swarm cells? bigger cells kind at the top. this realy bites!!!! :'( :'(

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Kathyp · May 29, 2010, 03:02:40 PM

you may have a new queen that is not laying yet. easiest thing to do is grab a frame of eggs from another hive and put it in. check i a couple of days and see if they have started queen cells. if not, there is probably a queen in there. if yes, you can allow them to requeen themselves, or buy and queen to introduce to the hive.

riverrat · May 29, 2010, 05:05:16 PM

queen cells towards the top tells me they are either supercedure or emergency queen cells. the queen may have been injured or died for some reason it may have been during your last inspection who knows. you didnt say if these was package bees but it is not uncommom for the bees to superceded the queen you install from a package. hope you didnt destroy the cells if they are capped you are only about 10 to 15 days from having a laying queen

rgy · May 29, 2010, 07:04:47 PM

how do I post a picture?. I think they are making a queen, i took a picture and i would like to post it. or can i email it to some one who will post.

thanks

riverrat · May 30, 2010, 10:13:00 AM

here is a copy of your picture looks like a emergency queen cell to me

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http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc123/fdhoover/bees011.jpg

rgy · May 30, 2010, 11:19:34 AM

thanks. I guess we will let nature take it's course unless we can find a NUC or some extra brood. I think whats left is going to have to work real hard.

riverrat · May 30, 2010, 11:27:42 AM

i wouldnt add a nuc to them how many frames of bees do you have in the hive. if you could get a frame of brood would be good to add. It is still early enough for them to build up for winter if you have enough bees and feed

rgy · May 30, 2010, 11:40:43 AM

Not many bees and very little, less than two frames of pulled wax. It was a new 3 lb. box we hived at the end of aprill. Even when we hived it we were worried about the number of dead bees in the box. being new we just grabbed any old box the guy had. I called about a nuc and the guy didn't have one ready for at least a week so maybe I'll call him again and see if I can just buy some brood frames. Would that work you think?

I don't want to rob my other hive because that was also a new one in april. that one seems to be doing well with 5+ frames pulled as of Tuesday and we also saw eggs. the only concern there is that they pulled all 5 frames on one side of the box. i thought they worked from the center out but this one they work strictly one side so far.

riverrat · May 30, 2010, 11:58:16 AM

you can rotate the frames to the center of the hive givng them room to work frames on either side of brood nest. are you feeding sounds like both hives are slow to pull wax the week hive may not make it I would consider combining it with the other hive then feed If you are wanting a second hive which i would recommend. I would look for someone wanting to sell a nuc

rgy · May 30, 2010, 12:43:38 PM

have a top feeder on both hives. Talked to a local beek and he should have nucs ready in a week or two. We will go take a look at the other one tomorrow or tuesday and hopefully they will have pulled most of brood box.

Michael Bush · June 01, 2010, 06:54:58 AM

Sometimes they really are queenles, but most hives that you find with no eggs and brood have a virgin queen who will be laying sometime in the next two weeks. The best solution is some open brood. That way you don't interfere, waste a queen, or otherwise worry. You just give them the resources to fix it if they need them and not mess things up if they don't need them.