Extra queen and what I think is a queenless hive

[TwoHoneys]

One of the packages I installed 2 weeks ago appears queenless. No sign of her or her activity at all (whereas the other packages I installed on the same day have all kinds of eggs, larva, capped brood, etc).

I have an extra caged queen, and I need to find a job for her ASAP...should I simply install her in the hive I believe is queenless?

-Liz

[Tommyt]

 The package came with a caged queen?? they released her or you did??
What do you think Happened ?
If you put her in,(extra queen)I'd watch to see if they accept her,It may also bring the queen (if there is one )
out of hiding and she will try to Kill her :shock:
If the bees seem to take too the new one, maybe leave her caged a couple days for insurance before pulling cork


Tommyt

[TwoHoneys]

The package came with a caged queen which I released directly into the hive. I'm using top entrances and feeding on the bottom board (like this: http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm#bottom). It's been raining like crazy in Ohio, and rain ran into the bottom feeder when its cover blew off...when I discovered all that water, I also discovered A LOT of dead bees in it.

Perhaps the queen drowned. (I'll say, though, that the other 13 top-entrance, bottom-feeding hives are performing beautifully.)

Today, I combined a couple of 2-pound packages with a single queen (which I left caged). This gave me an extra queen...I could use the extra queen in the hive that seems queenless.

(You know, the bees didn't seem edgy or irritable or loud in the hive I'm worried about...just no eggs, no larva, no capped brood, no queen sighting).

-Liz

[asprince]

Give them a frame with eggs. If they are queenless, they will build queen cells. You could then safely put the new queen in the hive. If they do not start queen cells, you could have a virgin queen that has not started laying.


good luck,

Steve

[schawee]

liz, i agree with steve,give them the frame of eggs and see what happens.    ...schawee

[TwoHoneys]

Okay. I'll give them a frame with eggs etc. However, the queen I've got in her cage doesn't have any attendants in the cage with her. How can I keep her alive until I know whether or not I'll need her?!

-Liz

[joebrown]

If she has no attendants, you need to either catch her some or put her in the hive and hope for the best, because she needs to be fed. I do not know that new attendants will work though. I would place her in the hive and hope for the best. That would be better than her dieing and the hive producing a subpar queen. In that scenario you would be shafted both ways. Bad or failed hive and a dead queen!

[Tommyt]

Okay. I'll give them a frame with eggs etc. However, the queen I've got in her cage doesn't have any attendants in the cage with her. How can I keep her alive until I know whether or not I'll need her?!

-Liz

Take a frame of honey?Nectar/beebread with bees on it and place it in its own box with her in the cage
the bees will feed her
you should at least give her a drop of water and maybe a drop of honey if you can't give her a frame of bees

Tommyt

[Michael Bush]

>I have an extra caged queen, and I need to find a job for her ASAP...should I simply install her in the hive I believe is queenless?

If you think they are merely queenless and not laying workers, just introduce her with a candy cage (put candy in if there isn't any.

>The package came with a caged queen which I released directly into the hive. I'm using top entrances and feeding on the bottom board (like this: http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm#bottom). It's been raining like crazy in Ohio, and rain ran into the bottom feeder when its cover blew off...when I discovered all that water, I also discovered A LOT of dead bees in it.

Any open feeder (frame feeder, top feeder etc.) drowns a lot of bees.  Even jar feeders when they leak drown a lot of bees.

>Perhaps the queen drowned. (I'll say, though, that the other 13 top-entrance, bottom-feeding hives are performing beautifully.)

It's doubtful that the queen is among them.  She is not trying to feed from the bottom.

>Today, I combined a couple of 2-pound packages with a single queen (which I left caged). This gave me an extra queen...I could use the extra queen in the hive that seems queenless.

Why do you think it's queenless?  How long has the queen bee released?  Sometimes it takes two weeks for a queen to start laying.

>(You know, the bees didn't seem edgy or irritable or loud in the hive I'm worried about...just no eggs, no larva, no capped brood, no queen sighting).

For how long?

>Okay. I'll give them a frame with eggs etc. However, the queen I've got in her cage doesn't have any attendants in the cage with her. How can I keep her alive until I know whether or not I'll need her?!

She will probably die in a day or less without attendants.  Catch some or put her in a small box with some candy and some bees shake in and some small holes for air.

[TwoHoneys]

For Michael:

Why do you think it's queenless?  How long has the queen bee released?  Sometimes it takes two weeks for a queen to start laying.

>I released the queen on April 23...2 weeks ago. I see no eggs, no larva, no capped brood, and I didn't see the queen herself. (I don't think there are laying workers yet...I didn't see any eggs at all.)


She will probably die in a day or less without attendants.  Catch some or put her in a small box with some candy and some bees shake in and some small holes for air.

>Okay. I'll get her into a new setup with some attendants. I think I'll set up a nuc.

[Michael Bush]

If you set up a nuc you may as well introduce her to the nuc.  It's easier to introduce a queen who is currently laying than one who has been caged.