Hello Everyone, this is a mystery story, help solve the mystery.
This year was my first Flow Hive (love it) and my first attempt at bee keeping. We only bought one hive and one Pac which I now know was a mistake (we should have started with 2), but nonetheless we persisted.
Our initial queen from the Pac met an end, we’re not sure how or when, but after the colony had established for 3 weeks we never saw her again, she was gone. But since I’m a newbie I didn’t notice that the colony was descending into laying workers until 6, almost 7 weeks in. By then it took 2 more weeks to get a replacement queen and I was pretty sure everything was a loss from what I’d read on the internet.
I shook off all the frames 100 yards from the hive on an overcast day of 80 degrees at 10am when all the good worker bees were out foraging. I brought the frames back to the hive and there were an army of 1000s workers waiting for me to put the hive back. I did, and hung the new queen cage inside. Closed up shop and waited a week.
Now to the mystery: I searched high and low for her today and she was apparently gone, but after 20 minutes of searching and giving up, I went to take the queen cage (sugar plug completely eaten) off the frame to toss it away and WOW, there she was, alone, by herself, alive, in the back of the queen cage, almost as if she was hiding in there.
I removed the screen and let her into the hive manually and bees immediately surrounded her, but did not mob her. I couldn’t tell if they were being nice to her or aggressive (being a newbie it’s really hard for me to tell these things). She walked around slowly on a comb, then turned the corner, then I figured there’s nothing more I can do for her so I closed up shop again.
Mystery: Why was she hiding in the queen cage? Why wouldn’t she immediately try to start righting the hive? Has she not been accepted, and by releasing her into the rest of the hive I just signed her death sentence? Is it possible that none of these questions are answerable until I can next inspect the hive and gather more clues?
Hi Kevin and welcome! You might not know everything yet, but you seem very observant and that’s an excellent trait for beekeeping. I don’t know for sure why your new queen was staying in her cage - even though it sounds like her attendants already left, right? I would guess maybe she was weak from hunger if they were released a lot sooner, but if she was accepted I’d think other bees would try to feed her too. Maybe someone with more experience than I have with introducing queens will have an idea!
I think the best you can do for now is look for eggs in a few more days. Fingers crossed for ya!
I have done many, many queen replacements, and I have never seen that. So you are right, it is a mystery!
I think that is correct. She may survive, she may not. I don’t think that you have done anything wrong. The way you handled the laying worker problem was very impressive.
I differ a little from @Eva, in that I like to give new queens a week or two to be properly accepted by the hive before inspecting. If you go in too early, the hive may change their minds and “ball” (kill) her.
Please keep us updated. This is a fascinating story!
Hi Kevin, my thoughts are that the queen was hiding for her own safety. A colony with a laying worker doesn’t take to a new queen very well, from what I’ve read. Therefore I wouldn’t attempt it myself. After doing the shake method, I always give the brood box fresh frames of bias from another colony. Then I’ll inspect in 4 or 5 days to see if the colony is building emergency queens. If the first attempt doesn’t work, you may need to repeat it with another frame of bias. Keep adding frames of bias until they start building emergency queens.
You probably don’t have another hive to gather brood from, so you might have to purchase some from another beekeeper.
There is another strategy I use, however it requires another colony of similar size in the vicinity, but not too close.
PS. I agree with @Dawn_SD in waiting at least a week before doing an inspection. During that time you could try to line up some frames of brood in case you need them. Even if you don’t need them for the purpose of creating a new queen, they wouldn’t go astray in building up the numbers, especially a frame or 2 with mostly sealed & emerging bees.
What’s happening in this hive is something I’ve never read on any forum or in any article. I can only describe it as bizarre. Thank you so much to all of you who wrote me with your thoughts, I appreciate the sharing of knowledge on this forum very much.
Here’s an update on the 11 day post --queen being evicted from her hiding place in the queen cage and forced to live in the hive-- inspection. Went in this morning to a radically different hive. The drones were almost all gone and very very few bees remain (it was a 9am inspection on a very warm day so doubtless foragers were out foraging). I found the queen almost immediately, she looked healthy and was walking around the largest of the combs doing her bee business and so that seemed very encouraging.
BUT, I could not find a single egg, or ANY developing larva or brood.
All that was in the hive was a queen wandering around, worker bees (about 200), lots of honey stores, and empty cells that were cleaned out of the mess left behind by the egg laying workers from early June. I want to be hopeful since she’s been successfully accepted into the hive which I was told was the hard part of fixing a worker-laying-queenless-hive problem. But with no eggs and no brood it’s all going to be for nothing in the end.
So… What do you guys think is going on? Why isn’t she laying? Could the hive displease her in some way? I’m at a loss to understand it.
If there aren’t enough bees in the hive, they won’t let the queen lay. If she does, they eat the eggs. Looking after larvae - feeding them, keeping them warm etc, is a lot of work. If there aren’t enough bees, they can’t do it. What would save your bees is a frame of capped brood from a local beekeeper, if you can find one…
Hi Kevin, I don’t see any mystery & I agree with everything @Dawn_SD said except that if hive beetles are about, a frame of sealed brood could get infested with only 200 bees to protect it. Even if bees are emerging, those very young bees are not good defenders. A colony with only 200 bees + queen needs a couple of frames worth of nurse bees added to it for it to develop into a worthwhile colony. Then you can add that frame of brood.
That can be achieved if you know someone who is willing to help in that area. I can explain the method if you want to go that way. It’s my latest favorite strategy that works really well for me.
