requeening problem

[Ivan]

I have a problem requeening one hive. Last fall i got it from a frend of mine, and as far as i can remember it was queenless. So i gave them one of my spare queens (introdused in a queen cage) and a little later it was dead. So 1 week ago i combined (newspaper) it with another small hive with a good queen and it had around 100 eggs. Today i looked in and could not find any eggs brood or the queen.
-Why are they killing the queen?
-Why do they not want to raise any brood?
-Is it some kind of desiese?
Thank you!
Ivan

[Michael Bush]

>-Why are they killing the queen?

Probably they have laying workers if they have been queenless a long time.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslayingworkers.htm

>-Why do they not want to raise any brood?

They don't have a queen?  They don't have enough bees to keep the brood warm?  They don't have enough food to feed them?

>-Is it some kind of desiese?
Are you seeing dead brood or missing brood?  It doesn't sound like a brood disease.

[Ivan]

>-Probably they have laying workers if they have been queenless a long time.
There are no eggs present.

>-They don't have enough bees to keep the brood warm?  They don't have enough food to feed them?
They have about 3 full frames of bees and they have 10 frames of honey, most are 3/4 full but 95% is cristelized and wet looking.

>-Are you seeing dead brood or missing brood?
They don't have any but i gave them some eggs from the other hive and it desapierd :shock:.


Could it be some kind of queen desiese that she dies from it?
Thanks

[Michael Bush]

>Could it be some kind of queen desiese that she dies from it?

There is nothing like that I've seen or heard of.

Queen acceptance is a tricky thing sometimes.  People have written chapters on it in many books.  The most reliable method I know of is to get a frame of emerging brood and a frame of open brood and put the frame of open brood in the hive to be requeened.  Put the queen on the comb of emerging brood and put a push-in-cage over her.  Come back in about four days and release her, if the bees haven't already.

http://www.honeyflowfarm.com/beeproject/images/puchincagelarge.jpg
http://www.honeyflowfarm.com/beeproject/images/puchincagelarge.jpg

A push in cage is easily made from #8 hardware cloth.  Cut a 5" square of the cloth, then cut about 5/8" in from 5/8" from each corner on all four corners and then fold it around to make the cage.  I strip off two of the horizontal wires so the legs stick down more into the comb.

[Ivan]

I will try that.
Thanks!