New Queen (I think) but no drones

[Rowie]

One of my hives decided to supercede last month and the new queen should have hatched two weeks ago. Found the old queen on the ground at the front of the hive the same day. Just had a first look in today but couldn't find new queen or any eggs. My worry is that there have been no drones since the bad weather in August and I'm afraid she's been unable to find a mate! Any advice would be welcome.

[Mellifera Crofter]

One of you hives - so can you give this hive a test frame of eggs? I don't know whether there comes a time in the year when a test frame is not that good as an indication of the presence of a queen any more - that they might decide it's too late to make a queen. I don't know. I'm in a similar position. I'll have a look around Tuesday to see what they've done.
Kitta

[Rowie]

Thanks for reply. I do have other hives but queens seem to have stopped laying. I think I need to try again to find this queen if she's there! If not I can unite with another colony but if there's a young virgin queen in there I'm afraid she'll kill the mated queen in the other colony. I'm also going to wait a while before having another look.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Most of my queens have stopped laying. I had to go through several hives before I found a frame with eggs to use as a test frame.

When you're next in the apiary, perhaps first see if you can find a test frame before disturbing that colony too much searching for the queen. Some of your queens might have started laying again.
Kitta

[Feckless Drone]

been there - what worked for me was simply waiting. Others on the forum have mentioned that strong colonies sometimes take an age to get a new Q laying and 4 weeks from emergence is almost always the time scale for mine. You mention you have other hives so I guess wait a couple of weeks then unite is possible.
But, the issue is if you have a Q there in the first place and would you want to risk letting the Qs sort it out. I'd be interested to hear how it goes.

[Jon]

I have had several supersedures over the past few weeks and thankfully the queens have mated within a couple of weeks of emergence. We have had great weather.
I rarely see perfect supersedure where the old queen is retained until the new one has started to lay.
They old queen often disappears before the new one has even emerged. Risky behaviour but as MBC claims, the bees know best!

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Rowie
You can combine them with a queen excluder between boxes and newspaper pinned to it
Dont be surprised to find laying in both top and bottom boxes later on though
That then gives you another problem to solve

[Rowie]

Thanks all for the advice. I'm going to have another look today but will check other hives for eggs first as suggested. I know the old queen is gone - found her body on the ground the day after the new queen was due to emerge. Will let you know how it goes.

[Jon]

I saw another supersedure today. This colony has a single sealed cell at the weekend.
The old marked queen was on the back frame and the virgin was in the middle of the brood nest.
The new queen is far bigger than her ma.
The old queen is still laying well and at least they have retained her for the moment.
This was one of the colonies which had MAQS

[busybeephilip]

queen losses and supercedure seems to be an inherent unwanted problem with MAQS which is why I avoid this method of treatment. Stick with the thynol and oxalic methods which have been well proven in europe for many years