Lost Queen??????

cajnbeeman · January 18, 2012, 07:01:08 PM

I'm in south Louisiana and its nice and warm here. I decided to check on the hive about two weeks ago and everything looked fine. Lots of capped honey but no brood which I expected. I did notice quite a few small hive beetles so I did some research and decided to make a screened bottom board with an oil pan. once completed I decided to go back and replace the old bottom board with my new screened one with beetle trap. since I was going in I decided to look around again and I noticed several, maybe 10-15, possible supersedure cells on the face of several frames in the upper box. All were opened on the bottom since no brood are in the hive at all. Could this mean the queen is gone?

caticind · January 18, 2012, 07:07:49 PM

Supercedure cells with no larvae in them? Yep, sounds like your queen died out during the winter. Requeen as soon as possible.

cajnbeeman · January 18, 2012, 07:18:05 PM

Any recommendations on where to order a new queen from?

BrentX · January 18, 2012, 07:24:31 PM

Be careful to distinguish supercedure cells from queen cups. A healthy robust hive will make queen cups on the sides of frames ...just in case. They are not necessarily getting ready to swarm.

Is there fresh eggs? How about brood? Carefully consider before deciding the queen is gone.

backyard warrior · January 18, 2012, 07:33:34 PM

Do you have more than one hive??? This would be a perfect example to have more than one hive with fresh brood to put into that hive. If they are queenless they will make a queen if they arent they wont make a queen and they will just raise the brood as workers its the easiest fix in my book let the bees decide thats my moto. Chris

Vance G · January 18, 2012, 08:03:23 PM

Do you have drones to mate a queen in Louisiana now? If you don't I would start trying to find a queen. If the supercedure cells were chewed open, I would still wait two weeks and check for eggs in a good pattern. You mnay have had a virgin emerge and suceed in finding some dates! If you don't get any action that way or can't find a queen, I would combine them with another hive. You could get a Hawaii queen but it would probably cost the price of a package come spring by the time you got it shipped.

backyard warrior · January 18, 2012, 08:17:00 PM

ditto what vance said :) Chris

Buffomatic · January 22, 2012, 01:35:28 AM

You might check with Russell apiaries they are in Brandon, MS.

Russell Apiaries
212 Fannin Landing Cir.
Brandon, MS 39047
Phone: (601) 966-3568

On their website they said they are maintaining a few queens for
emergencies.

Buff

schawee · January 23, 2012, 11:27:59 PM

what part of south louisiana you are from?