Surprise on Ist look-in of the year

My presumed best colony is my smallest.
No brood, but polished cells.
Queen was marked, not seen and a broken down QC slap in the middle of a frame.
Last looked in 5th September when all looked good.
This is one of three poly hives I run, two of which superseded after MAQS.
The bees were good natured and largely ignored me. A goodly number spent most of the time fanning on the top bars.

I must presume my original queen is longer. Now, do I have no queen, a duff queen or a queen that hasn't got going?
Time will tell I suppose.
Had to super the other two polys Brood from ear to ear....if hives had ears

Suggest you insert comb of eggs & young larvae from one of the others into the "mystery" colony. If when you look a week later they have produced emergency cells then they are queenless. If they haven't then they either have a queen that isn't laying or laying workers developing but not yet laying. What to do next depends on the results.

YES test frame in on next inspection.
It was the last colony I looked at and didn't want to pull any of the others apart again.

Yes Erica mine are slow , one colony way ahead of the rest . Two ,queens seen but no eggs or brood . One the queen has been superseded .
All in good humour but the weather is something else D
VM


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This early in the yer think colony size is also I think dependant on the strain of bees, i have one hive thats is of caucasian decent, lots of propolis and three frames of brood, wheres next to it a ex swarm of cordovan yellow italians that are on 9 frames of brood

I would suggest Queen less, some strains are a bit slower than others but there should be a good amount of BIAS present at this time of year especially after a mild winter and good weather recently, sounds like a failed supersedure to me test frame asap.

Hi all and Ericha,
I have absolutely stopped trying to make any plans for my bees' spring development and location. I made one three ft move yesterday. It went well, but I am not putting them through that four more times. Just to disruptive when they should be concentrating on foraging not searching for the front door.

Last year, once warm enough (to open the hives), the bee inspector came and at one hive said "do you hear that? they may be queenless". However a small patch of brood was found. They did ok, swarmed, were caught and re-hived, and provided me with a full super of honey to harvest. At the last stages of apiguard treatments in the autumn they were roaring again. "oh no!" I thought, the queen has gone now and it's too late to do anything about it. First inspection this year, the same queen has laid up 7 frames and the bees lay on their backs for their tummies to be tickled! (ok slight exaggeration, but they are quite happy). You just can't make definite statements with bee behaviour - that's what makes it fun! - isn't it??

Would you be so good as to tell me what is meant by BIAS please as in ...

"I would suggest Queen less, some strains are a bit slower than others but there should be a good amount of BIAS present at this time of year especially after a mild winter and good weather recently, sounds like a failed supersedure to me test frame asap."

mister_oxo said:

Would you be so good as to tell me what is meant by BIAS please as in ...

Click to expand...

Brood in all stages.

mister_oxo said:

Would you be so good as to tell me what is meant by BIAS please as in ...

"I would suggest Queen less, some strains are a bit slower than others but there should be a good amount of BIAS present at this time of year especially after a mild winter and good weather recently, sounds like a failed supersedure to me test frame asap."

Click to expand...

BIAS = Brood In All Stages [of development], which means eggs, hatched and developing larvae, sealed brood.

There are more acronyms in this thread http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=272

Five days after the test frame went in all they have done is capped it!!!!
Absolutely no sign of any other brood.
Searched for a queen.....nothing.
The colony is bringing in nectar and pollen but is dwindling.
Now what?
I'm tempted to pop them in a nuc box and let them get on with it.

Another test frame.

There may be a queen there, may not. Only time will tell. I have had queens which hid in the box bottom groove before now. Possibly a scrubby unmated queen, but it is surprising she is not a drone layer. Possibly nosemic.

Try sieving the bees through a queen excluder? Will not necessarily work with a small queen.

Split into two parts and see if one part is agitated, indicating queen in the other part - again may not be enough bees to be sure.

Run them into a hive up a white sheet or board, watching for a queen?

The bees youh ave added will still be useful. They would not be foragers for another month or more, anyway.

RAB

Thanks RAB.
I have two other colonies to look into on Friday and I already had in mind adding another test frame. I remember my first year mentor trying to make a split for a novice beekeeper at our local BKA getting exasperated as it took four frames before they made themselves a new queen.
Never considered emptying them onto a white sheet ....I wonder whether I would be quick enough to spot her?
I've tried all the rest bar sieving, which I hate doing
Oh well....needs must

PS had a look at some squashed bees a few weeks ago....nothing there.

oliver90owner said:

Run them into a hive up a white sheet or board, watching for a queen?

Click to expand...

Erichalfbee said:

Never considered emptying them onto a white sheet ....I wonder whether I would be quick enough to spot her?

Click to expand...

You could try using a Taranov board as per Taranov split (on DC's site plus one or two blogs that also have photos) - the queen would stay on the underside of the board with with a cluster of bees, the rest fly back to the hive. That way you'd isolate her. Of course, it might not work!