I have found any of my hot hives have been riled even more with smoke.
I just make sure i’m impregnable and just get in there.
@Dawn_SD prescription of making a nuc up is the way to go, then once you HAVE found your queen you can unite the two colonies
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Hi Dee. As you, I found that smoke riles up the bees in a way. Not that they go into defence mode immediately, but it excites them.
I usually find, without smoke, the inspection becomes part of bee life and I see Her Highness more often than not.
Yet, I like to use smoke to chase the bees out of the way while reassembling the hive.
Mostly my smoker is charged and ready when inspecting.
One never knows with these insects.
Hi. I am still in need of some advice here. After my effort to re-queen, there was still no brood at week 1 week 2 week 3. My bees are still antsy so I didn’t spend a lot of time looking for a queen. I only have one hive so I don’t have spare brood to try a test frame. So 3 weeks ago I contacted a local bee guy and paid him to look at my hive to see if he could find a queen (even a non laying one) and also to put in a couple of frames of brood. He did the inspection, found no queen, but was persistently resistant to putting in 2 brood frames despite my urging based on his feeling that it was too late in the season even if the hive created a virgin queen (late autumn australia). I said I would re-queen if he put in brood and couldn’t find the queen but he still wouldn’t do it (I wasn’t sure that he understood what I was trying to do). So despite $230, I am in the same position I started in. An agitated hive, with no brood, eggs etc, no visible queen, and I expect a diminishing bee population (although it still seems pretty busy). My question is …Is there a seasonal limit on putting in a new queen before the hive collapses and if I buy a queen, would she be already mated or a virgin queen? Interestingly, I removed the flow hive super today and there was a small amount of ?drone brood in the super but still no brood under the queen excluder.
I’m shocked at the $230. Did he have far to travel? I know I have suggested to other people to seek professional help. I’ll never do that again.
Is there a local bee club where you can hook up with a conscientious mentor? Someone who wont rip you off.
To be fair JeffH, that covered 1.5 hrs of travel as well. But yes, I won’t be doing that again especially since he wouldn’t really help me in the way I wanted and treated me as if I was a bit clueless (I’m less experienced but not clueless). He was suggested by a local bee group but not the one where I was trained. Do you know whether, if I ordered a new queen, she would come as a virgin or mated?
You should definitely check with the place you are ordering from, but most purchased queens are mated and good places also check that the queen is laying before shipping her.
If you had drone brood in the super, but none below the excluder, it could actually be your queen somehow got through the excluder. Once in the flow frames, she likely only lays drones.
Not sure if you found multiple eggs in cells below the excluder. That would indicate laying workers. That wouldn’t be an easy situation at this time.
See if you find the queen in amongst the flow frames.
A mated Queen is available for sure. Search in the super first. If she is there, she will be very happy to go back into the brood box.
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Hi Grace, following on with the suggestions by @Webclan, did he look for her in the super by any chance?
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Hi Grace. As I see it you have nothing to loose and everything to gain by getting a queen into your hive ASAP. Ask the supplier of the queen is she is a proven mated queen. In other words is laying female brood. If you can get her into the hive before she is subjected to the ambient cold down there then there is every chance of a successful re-queening of the hive. I can’t understand the chap refusing your request to provide a queen, everything you have said is indicating a queenless hive.
I would contact a local bee club where there is usually a member that could help you out with a queen or at least some very young brood. He would also be experienced in handling a hot hive, so that would be the way to go.
Next Spring have another hive ready to do a split and have a second hive, it can save you money and time in the sort of situation you are in.
Regards
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Have a feeling he wouldn’t have looked up in the super. Usually you don’t expect the queen up there.
Considering the super has now been taken off the hive, it just depends on how this was done and if Queen Twiggy had a chance to find her way back.
If indeed this is what occurred.
But considering the information we have, it’s likely.
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yes, good point…
For that price I would think he should have even looked under the hive !!! I think his price very unreasonable.
Considering the hive has been hot and no brood for 3 weeks but he was resisting her request that he add 2 frames of brood and a queen he was unreasonable.
If the hive was queen right the new queen would be killed by the colony. Now a further 3 weeks and Grace is still asking for advise so I assume the hive still has no brood. I have a bad taste about the guy who did the “inspection”, that he didn’t supply the brood or the queen she asked for makes me wonder if he even went there with them.
Hope your weather has cleared up.
Regards
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That’s too bad: $230.00 can buy a couple of new colonies for next year 
Thanks Peter I’m hunting around for a new queen right now. The guy did offer to put in a queen after he had done this inspection (another 220 I assume) but I said I thought I could do it myself (cheaper). I really just hoped he’d put in the brood and find/not find the queen.
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I was pretty careful about putting the super frames into a container and tipping bees back so maybe.
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P.S. I didn’t mean to create bad feeling about the help I received, and thanks for answering my questions
That’s fine Grace, it sounds fair & reasonable considering the 45 minute each way drive.
I probably jumped on the price a bit hard because I usually charge $50 for the same thing if there isn’t far to go.
Hi Grace, I will hold my tongue about the lack of help he gave you and the price he charged so I expect you can read my mind.
Let us know how you get on. To give you some idea, and sure Jeff will not mind me telling you, he charges $110 for a very large nuc with an exchange of 4 frames. That is the difference between a gentleman and a scoundrel.
Regards