Dumping the Queen in the fall?

Kathyp · October 02, 2006, 09:19:23 PM

today, i found a queen outside the hive and obviously dying. i scooped her up to take a good look. i didn't see any damage but when i put her back in front of the hive, she crawled off and dropped into the grass.

i had an awesome queen this year. i don't know if the one i found dying is the one that has been a laying fool all season.

if the queen i have is good, would they make and expel another? is this common in the fall? if my queen is lost, would they try to requeen this late? the weather has been mild, but i have noticed less activity around the hive, even on the 80 degree days we had last week.

i expect there is not much to be done about it now. i'll see what happens in the spring, i guess. just wondering if this is is something to be expected.

SteveSC · October 02, 2006, 09:46:05 PM

Kathy....sounds similar to what I had this afternoon. I had what looked like a swarm still on the outside of the hive but the bees in the swarm were attacking the queen in the swarm.

You can read my post..I waiting on a reply from someone tell me what happened today.

Steve in SC

Kathyp · October 02, 2006, 09:55:00 PM

it does. i didn't have a fight or bees outside, but i sure lost a queen. i didn't even have to kill it! :D

Michael Bush · October 02, 2006, 11:05:32 PM

I had a similar situation myself. A small swarm on top of the hive and a lot of fighting and a queen being balled. She was unmarked (the queen in the hive was marked blue) so I put her in a cage so they wouldn't harm her and dumped the bees in a nuc. When I came back the queen was dead and the bees were gone. I'm thinking the hive either lost a queen or superceded her and this was the virgin either leaving or returning from a mating flight. I put a queen in the hive and they haven't harmed her yet, which is a good indication they were queenless. This hive was also suddenly very hot when it had bee a very nice hive. My guess is that queen was trying to return and got confused and some attempted robbers were harrasing her and her entourage.

It's possible the dead queen you found was an old queen being supercedued, or there were two queens all year and they threw one out because it's fall.

Kathyp · October 02, 2006, 11:22:26 PM

i did find what i thought were queen cells early in the year. maybe i didn't have an awesome queen. maybe i had two? :D would both stay and lay in the same hive?

anyway, i thought it was interesting. the hive seems fine. the only problem has been a great deal of attempted robbing. i just flipped over a bail of hay and found another big yellow jacket nest about 100 ft from my hive.....ran like bloody hell! i'll dig them out after the freeze!

heidip · October 08, 2006, 06:54:03 PM

i had a similar situation up here in new england this week as well...found a queen just wandering aimlessly in the grass near the hive...no one attending her or swarming around her..she died very soon after (of natural causes..I didn't squash her), I didn't have any of the swarms that you mentioned and I did check my hive and found eggs...I'm going to check again in a few more days and see if I have more new eggs, that way I'll know I still have a queen in the hive..I'm hoping so. :?

Brian D. Bray · October 08, 2006, 07:02:37 PM

hiedip:
your case sounds like natural supercedure.

Michael Bush · October 08, 2006, 09:09:33 PM

The hive I found my swarm on ended up queenless. The got very hot shortly afterwards. I put a queen in a cage in and they calmed right down. Must have been a late supercedure and she was on her mating flight but got confused.

heidip · October 13, 2006, 04:00:22 PM

I just wanted to report that after waiting 6 days before checking the hive again...(to make sure any eggs were new eggs) I found TONS! so I'm pleased that after my panic of finding a queen outside the hive; it worked out and my girls have a shot at making it through the winter. hp