another queen is m.i.a.

[rober]

some of you hhave been following my ongoing problems with queens this year. 2 weeks ago i found 2 queens on a fame. i caged 1& put her in a queenless hive. those 2 hives appear to be doing well. while doing inspections yesterday i found a hive that has no brood. not 1 single cell. this is a hive that requeened itself in may. i'll be adding a couple frames with eggs in the morning. i'm also checking to see if i can find a queen locally. counting the 4 queens that were duds while making splits this makes 7 queens that i've lost this year.

[BeeMaster2]

Rober,
At our Jacksonville Beekeepers meeting last night, I was talking to a fellow member and he had the same problem. Our club apiary also had the same problem, we re queened all of the hives per the Ag center request (they paid for them, hives are on city property) and 2 of them lost there queens within a couple of weeks. Both of them made there own queens. I had one swarm that I saw the Q a week after putting it in a hive. For the next 3 weeks I had real sparse brood, no eggs but I still ended up with Q cells. I could not find the queen. I have left that one alone, except to peek under the top and look through the screen, to give the new Q a chance to mate, before I check it again.
Seems weird.
Jim

[Joe D]

I had 3 hive to swarm this year, caught all 3 swarms.  With in a week 2 of the queens had died.  1 hive went back to old hive, I bought a queen for the other.



Joe

[thegolfpsycho]

I made a quick inspection of 5 new colonys today.  These colonys are about 7 weeks old, on new permadent foundation and on from 5 to 7 frames.  They were fine a couple weeks ago.  However,  I found 3 queenless, another that has filled the broodnest with honey and the queen marching around with no place to lay.  (I switched in some new foundation but it looks like some drifting has grown this colony and I didn't see any capped brood and few eggs) and 1 other that is mean as all get out that I closed up while being vigorously encouraged to leave.  The main flow is all but over here, so I will be feeding.  It's a long hot summer ahead, so I guess I have time to raise up some queens rather that throw more money at these commercial ladies that don't seem to have any staying power. 

[rober]

sawdstmaker-
my concern is that there is absolutely no brood. none at all. 3 weeks ago i saw a queen & there at least 3 partial frames of brood.

[BeeMaster2]

I have seen the same thing and then a Q shows up. How long of a time frame with no brood?
Jim

[slacker361]

I lost a queen also but that is because I killed her. stupid me, but when I was checking another new hive I had the earnest time finding her, here she was on the side of the box..... now I have only been doing this for three years, butt he queens are acting strange IMHO

[rober]

i'm not sure. there were at least 2-3 partial frames 10 days or so ago.went thru the hive this morning. i took my time & was very methodical. did not see a queen.

[BeeMaster2]

I'm not sure. there were at least 2-3 partial frames 10 days or so ago.went thru the hive this morning. i took my time & was very methodical. did not see a queen.

I would locate a Q source, but wait another week and thoroughly check it again. If you are using a veil, take some pictures so that you can review the frames better for eggs although by the end of the week you should have brood. If none add a Q.
Jim

[rober]

i opened the hive next to the broodless hive to pull some eggs. the upper brood box was all nectar/honey. the bottom box only had 1 1/2 frames of brood. does the queen slow down her laying when the flow stops? with this semi-drought we have here the flow is almost non-existant. there are a lot of bees in this hive & up until now this hive has been loaded with brood. this hive also requeened itself this past april.