Fifteen days ago I did hive inspection with a bee mentor. Thirty five plus years experience. My Flow Hive has two brood boxes and I added the honey Flow super that day.
Both brood boxes were an A+ by his account. Lots of honey, capped brood, larvae, and eggs. So the Queen had been there in the last few days. No pests. Three capped Queen cells…which he cut away.
Fast forward to today. I did another inspection. The upper brood box, which had been a fairly textbook hive cross section, was almost all honey! Like 50+ pounds. Very heavy. Absolutely no eggs or larvae but I did see some capped brood.
Lower box was much lighter frame by frame. Some capped brood and honey stores but NO larvae or eggs.
Bees seemed different. Not overly aggressive beyond typical face huggers, but louder. Some balling in one corner and outside where I had frames hanging. And since the inspection they have been bearding outside like I’ve never seen. Not just hanging off the landing board but up the front of the hive. But it is hot here.
I took the flow frames off and painted them with wax as they had shown zero interest in them. There does now seem to be a lot more active bees in the third honey super level.
My bee supplier thinks the Queen may have already flown the coop. No eggs or larvae. Or maybe she quit and is prepping a swarm? I was genuinely shocked by no eggs/larvae. He suggested wait a week and see if any new eggs are present. Does a Queen stop laying in prep for a swarm? I’ve never even seen her, going by presence of eggs as an indicator of her presence.
I am concerned I am Queenless and with the removal of the capped Queen cells may be screwed. Introduce a new Queen?
Any suggestions? I am thinking painting the Flow frames may have done the trick to coax them up. And I did remove their protein patty I was using as an incentive (per suggestions from my other post).
Bees are such curious creatures! They are still packed in there. If it did swarm you’d never know based on population…
What you describe sounds like queenlessness, not sure if she swarmed or maybe was damaged/crushed/rolled during the inspection or the workers turned against her and those cells that were destroyed were supercedure cells.
Yes, she is put on a diet and decreases egg laying in preparation for flight. Seeing stand-up eggs is a good proxy for seeing the queen herself, so that’s fine. You only really need to see the queen if you’re doing a manipulation that requires you to put her in a certain place or if you want to catch her specifically (maybe to pinch her before requeening).
This is why most beekeepers I have talked to recommend against destroying queen cells. You’re not screwed, you just need to remedy the situation. You can wait a few days and look again but if you’re still not seeing any new queen cells or eggs/young larvae, you should donate a frame of eggs and young brood to the hive and/or get a mated queen.
On a unrelated topic, the town you live in is called “Confederate, KY?”
Hi Chris, your queen may still be there. I have a few points to make:
#1 If the colony swarmed with the old queen, the colony should be or should have built more queen cells.
#2 If the queen got killed during the last inspection, the colony should have built emergency queens, so therefore you should have spotted the queen cells, or empty queen cells from recently emerged of killed queens.
#3 If the queen stopped laying & is preparing to swarm, that coincides with the colony building swarm cells. Therefore if that’s the case, you should be finding swarm cells.
I would not introduce a new queen. I would remove the flow super for the time being. If you have any doubts, the one thing you can safely do is introduce a frame of BIAS (brood in all stages). Then after a week, check that frame to see if the colony is using the young brood & or eggs to make emergency queens.
Thanks for the.imformation. I’ll still collating information. My hive is still very robust and active. Like nothing is amiss. And I waxed the Flow honey frames and they are now going beezerk working them!
I will inspect again this weekend and see if there are any eggs or larvae.
Yes, we live in a small community actually called Confederate, KY. Named back before the civil war by a carpetbagger if memory serves. Could have been after.
Queenless hives continue to forage and deposit nectar and pollen - the biggest drain on these resources is raising brood, so it seems like they are really being productive when in reality they’re just not spending as much.
I live on the Mason-Dixon line where one has to be able to single the Battle Hymn of the Republic AND whistle Dixie… with equal enthusiasm. Depending on present company.
Some of my really great friends were born in Kentucky. They are wonderful people with superb taste in whisky. Never judge a book by the cover, but the contents really matter!
It’s worth remembering that a queenless colony will eventually end up with laying workers, so therefore the resources will be needed for raising all the drones they intend on raising, which will be as many as they can before they die out.
@CGAnderson , my advice to remove the flow super was intended for making life easier for you when doing further brood inspections until you sort the queen issue out. Once that’s all sorted out, then I’d advise replacing it.
God saved the Queen! Or at least made me a new one…
After a tense week or so not know what, if anything, had happened to Her Majesty, today we got some answers. During the last inspection about a week ago, we had no eggs and no larvae. Not a good thing. This morning’s inspection under the watchful eye of my mentor Wade Parrent started off not too promising either. The upper brood box, which had been fairly full of yet-to-emerge workers, had all hatched by this morning to be replaced with about 60 pounds of honey! But no eggs or larvae.
It was during inspection of the lower brood box we finally got answers about the Queen. Apparently
, the old Queen either died (probably but not certain), met with an accident, or swarmed and took some of the hive with her (the latter completely under my BEEDAR). We found new eggs and larvae in frames 3,4, and 5 of the lower box. Not a lot, but patched about the size of a closed fist on all those frames. So in all likelihood, a new Queen emerged, flew off for a few days to mate, and came back to get to work. We didn’t see her (but never saw the original one either) but she had ben there at east as far back as three or four days.
So I guess we have a new Queen. Wade even found the Queen cell she likely hatched from. Hopefully she will carry on and the hive will continue to thrive.
