We had a thriving hive which apparently swarmed when we were on vacation
We waited and watched for a new queen to the point where we had no brood and no pollen coming in so assumed queenless after several weeks. We added a queen and checked back about 5 days later to see if she was out of the cage and to look at some brood frames for hints of eggs.
Well, first year keeps, we had never heard of balling the queen and I am afraid we may have messed things up! Now should we wait another week for things to settle down and to give time for her to lay eggs tho I understand as a mated queen, that should happen quickly… but w no brood, and if they balled the queen, our population will just keep.declining.
So what if the new queen was killed? Are we doomed?
If the new queen got killed, the colony will certainly be doomed, without intervention. The first thing I would do is add a frame of brood containing worker eggs. Then check in 4-5 days time for either new eggs from the queen you installed, or emergency queen cells on the frame of brood you added.
The frame of brood will bolster the population as well
Thanks, I don’t have 2 hives but may be able to buy or borrow a frame. Are you are suggesting I don’t wait for several more days to see if the new queen is ok?
If you can buy or borrow a frame of brood fairly quickly, you can do 2 things at once in 4-5 days time. After that time you’ll see if #1, you have emergency queen cells, or #2, you have eggs from the queen you weren’t sure that you have. You did mention “our population will just keep declining”, so therefore that frame of brood will help to alleviate that, depending on how much brood is in the frame. One full deep frame of brood will accommodate 3 frames of bees, once they have all emerged.
Well done Metsker, seeing as you are at the end of spring, you never know, your buddy might be needing to weaken out a hive to prevent swarming. That’s how I try to prevent swarming, by removing full frames of brood, especially sealed brood, that takes pressure of the colony expanding to swarming strength.
Ok, I got a frame in w eggs and larvae on it and even a little queen cup. The frame we pulled didn’t have any so this feels like the right thing to do (unless queen survived and is on a different frame). Given it takes about a month for a queen to hatch and mate, when would you advise checking in?
Thanks for your suggestions, hopefully our hive survives.
As I suggest, check in 4-5 days to see if the colony is making emergency queens, if not, look for eggs from the elusive queen. You can look in any time up to 9-10 days. After that, provided you have emergency queens, leave the hive closed for a further 20 days, after which you should see evidence of a successfully mated queen. If not, repeat the process until you finally do get success. Don’t leave it too long after a failure, on account that laying workers will start. You don’t want that.
Depending on the strength of the colony, you might like to add another frame of brood, just to keep the population percolating. This is how your colony WILL survive.
Ok, I checked today and counted SEVEN queen cells on the borrowed brood frame. They are much smaller than the swarm cells. I assume that is normal? It is also much quieter and they’re moving honey up into the second box. Will heed your advice and leave it alone for 3 weeks. Fingers crossed.
Positioning of the queen cells is important on the face of comb is for a replacement queen, but they are likely desperate in wanting to rear a new queen so they are not taking any risks, the new queen will hatch and kill unhatched queens or battle it out with any other hatch queens.
Oh Kieran, you know better! Eggs hatch. Queens emerge!!!
Seriously though, biologically the only time a bee hatches is when it transitions from egg to larva. It then feeds on royal jelly (and bee bread if not a queen) until ready to pupate. At that point, it spins a cocoon and the nurse bees cap the cell until it matures. When it has matured, it EMERGES (it doesn’t hatch, because it isn’t an egg…) and chews its way out of the cell. The first job of any newly emerged bee is to clean the cell it just came from, ready for the next bee. Here endeth the lesson!
Yes totally, i’ve watched queens emerge a few times now. Thanks for calling me out . The capping on a cell is a little like a hatch though especially when they swing open with that last push from the queen inside. That being said i’ll be reading the hungry caterpillar to the kids tonight.
Thank you for taking my merciless teasing so well. I have to say that @JeffH has suffered the same from me. I apologize for being pedantic, but I believe that accuracy and understanding are important.
. The capping on a cell is a little like a hatch though especially when they swing open with that last push from the queen inside. That being said i’ll be reading the hungry caterpillar to the kids tonight.