Dying Queen/Hive?

[L Daxon]

Why would one of my queens be at my open feeder in 60 degree temp at 9 a.m. today in Oklahoma City? This queen was given to me about 4 weeks ago and was installed into a weak hive I thought was queenless. They seemed to take to her OK. But she never looked too robust.  I know the hive she came from was weak.

After getting over the shock of seeing her, I picked her up from the feeder (may have gotten some syrup on her) and put her on the landing board of the hive she came out of.  She would not go in.  Eventually bees came out and groomed and feed her.  I watched for about 45 min. She fell off the landing board once (put her back on) but she never moved more than 4 inches from where I put her.  She didn't move much, period.  I left and came back 30 min. later and she was no where that I could see.

What do I do now if my hive is probably queenless in November? :idunno:



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[BrentX]

Clearly something is amiss.  I would wait a week and then do an inspection if the weather cooperates, looking for eggs and evidence of another queen at work in that hive.  If no evidence of a queen then it is tume to decide about combining or letting the hive deplete.  Hard call this time of year.  Lets hope she got some fresh air and is now busy inside the hive!

[L Daxon]

I'm pretty sure there are no eggs in the hive this queen came out of.  But that could just be the time of year.  I've thought about just shaking as many bees as I could from this weak hive into my two other hives.  I am not sure what advantage that would be at this time of year.  I have never lost a hive so I don't know what kind of mess it would be to have to clean out all the dead ones next March or April.

[Hemlock]

Sounds like the bees don't like her.  Could she have been damaged in the move from hive to hive?

Looking for eggs might be a problem if your in the same boat as we're in here.  I have some hives that have plenty of eggs and some that don't.  Like you said it's that time of year. 

Last year i had a hive go queenless around Thanksgiving.  i combined that hive to the least populated of the two remaining hives.  Did a simple newspaper combine.