Queenless in Fall (Minnesota) after FormicPro treatment

[beeviola]

Hello beekeepers,
I'm a first year beekeeper in Northern Minnesota. I applied a FormicPro varroa mite treatment on September 22, following all instructions. About 10-15 minutes after applying the treatment the queen came out of the top entrance surrounded by 6-8 worker bees. A few seconds after that she flew away. I was shocked. Now my hive is queen less at the end of September and we're clearly headed into Fall with a few first nights close to freezing. It will be too cold for a new queen to go on a mating flight, even if they manage to make one. I'm not sure that there would be even any drones around still. And I can't find any queens for sale anymore for the season. Do you have any advice on what to do? Has this happened to anyone that the queen left or was rejected directly after formic acid treatment?

[The15thMember]

Welcome to Beemaster, beeviola!    I have used FormicPro a good number of times, I actually have a hive with the treatment in process right now, and I've personally never had queen trouble as a result of it, but I've heard it can be a problem.  Usually the complaint is that the bees supersede a queen though, not that she just takes off!    What were your temperatures like on the day you applied the treatment?

[Michael Bush]

Losing queens to formic acid is common.  My problem with formic (besides 100 other things) is that the dosage is all over the map because of temperature.  Any time you're trying to kill a bug on a bug and not kill the bigger bug, dosage is everything.

[BeeMaster2]

Welcome to Beemaster.
I would bee willing to bet your queen will come back. Give her about 10 days and look for eggs.
Jim Altmiller

[beeviola]

Thank you all so much for your comments and welcoming me. I had not even thought of the possibility that the queen might come back! The daytime temperature when I applied the FormicPro were around 65F. It fluctuates a bit because my hive is in the sun and shade depending on time of the day. The nighttime temperature after the queen left were in the mid 40s, so not sure if she can survive that by herself. I will check for eggs/brood once I can open the hive again after the treatment.
It does seem like quite an art and science to kill a bug on a bug without killing the bug with the bugs. I followed a beekeeping course on how to get bees through northern winters and they suggested FormicPro now and oxalic acid vapor once there's no brood. Now I regret using the formic acid! They weren't doing well in general though, lots of brood but almost no honey. Maybe the queen wasn't strong and they kicked her out? I'm just trying to make sense but it's probably too complex to really know.... Learning with and about the bees is quite a magnificent journey!

[The15thMember]

I've typically had good luck with FormicPro's performance at those temperature, but FormicPro is a very intense treatment.  I usually only use it on colonies that have extremely high counts or are visibly sick, since it will also take out sick bees, which can be helpful to keep infections from spreading.   

[Kathyp]

Lots of brood IS doing well.     The honey goes to feed the hive.  No flow, no stored honey unless you feed.  Not to worry.  You can do this for decades and they still surprise us with stuff we didn't know.

Welcome to beemaster!

[cao]

Welcome

Just thinking out loud...  Could the queen leaving be a supersedure?  The old queen leaving.