New queen not laying

[shadowdogs]

I had one of my hives swarm in mid-July. I waited a few more weeks, checking the hive weekly , to see if there was a queen present before purchasing a new queen. I introduced the new, marked queen a couple of weeks ago. I checked at the end of the first week and all I could find was some spotty drone cells. I checked again yesterday and still no new eggs or brood. I know the queen is still there because she's marked and I saw her. I have never requeened before. Is this normal or did I get a bum queen? There are drones in the hive but does a new queen make her own drones to mate with?

[BjornBee]

Did you get a bum queen....maybe.

No, she does not raise drone to mate with.

I had a couple customers in the past few weeks call after putting in new queens. I suggested they feed a little and see what happens. This is based on many of my hives and nucs being shut down over the past couple weeks with no flow and some on the verge of starvation. They all called back after a week and the queens are once again up and running. So maybe you have light hives or no flow??? It would be one reason of little or no brood, even with new queens. You may want to feed a for a few days and see if this stimulates her. No brood in August is very normal around here. Especially with lines other than Italians.

[Kathyp]

your queen should already be mated.

is there any food for them?  pollen in particular?  you might try feeding some 1:1 syrup and see if you can kick start her. might try 1/2 a pollen patty also but i don't know how the SHB is in your area, so maybe someone can let you know about that.  
 soon, the queens will start backing off laying anyway, but you need her to get going or you are not going to have bees for winter.

[shadowdogs]

I questioned the company who sold me the queen and he stated this is the second report this year he's had on this situation. He speculated that maybe the Postal Service is irradiating mail.

I guess I'll wait and see what happens. I really don't have much of a choice at this point as it's probably too late in the season to requeen.

[BjornBee]

Feed for a week then see...... :roll: