One of my hives has no queen.
Plenty of worker bees which are filling the brood box with honey & pollen & are not making any queen cells.
There are no eggs, no larvae etc.
Haven’t inspected for several weeks (winter)
Is this hive salvageable?
Thanks
You can salvage the hive by adding a frame of brood from another colony that includes eggs and young larvae, so the workers can make a new queen, or by buying a mated queen.
Out of curiosity was there any sealed brood? Did everything else seem okay with the colony, pest & disease wise? Any clues as to why the queen presumably died?
I agree with Eva, definitely add a frame of brood containing worker eggs. You need to do this with a degree of urgency, so as to avoid a laying worker from developing.
A ‘laying worker’ is more challenging to deal with, so therefore should be avoided where possible.
The first frame of brood doesn’t always result in emergency queens. Inspect after 6 days to see if the colony is producing some. If not, add another frame. Keep doing this every 6 days until the colony eventually builds them.
Not sure what the status is for shipping queens in Australia but you might also consider ordering a mated/laying queen, especially, of course, if you don’t have other hives to steal frames of brood from.
Jason is in QLD, so the NSW restrictions don’t apply if he buys a local queen. It’s not quite spring, but he might be lucky.
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Jason did say “one of my hives”, which is what prompted my reply, and possibly @Eva 's reply as well. My reply is exactly what I would do myself.
A queenless colony will never reject a frame of brood, however they can reject a new queen, especially because we don’t know how long the colony has been queenless.
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Thank you everyone for replying.
I’ve just transferred a frame from one of my other 2 hives, with plenty of eggs & young larva & will inspect on day 6.
I think it’s been a while since it’s been queenless, possibly may be a laying worker bee as JeffH suggested possible. There was some occasional capped drone appearing brood which now makes me suspicious. Either way I’ll persist and possibly add a second frame at day 6.
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Hi Jason, the occasional capped drone brood could be the last of the brood to emerge, because drones take 4 days longer to emerge than workers. Plus they are probably in drone comb.
A way to tell a laying worker is drone brood in worker cells. You said that you didn’t see any eggs. That indicates to me that a laying worker hasn’t commenced laying yet.