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Thread: Queen not laying

  1. #1

    Default Queen not laying

    Hello
    I wondered if there was any advice about this?
    Yesterday was the first warm day here in Ullapool so I was able to have a look in the hives. Two are doing well, loads of bees and stores and capped brood and lavas.
    Number three looks very sad. Lots of stores but very few bees. I assumed that the queen had not made it through the winter, but to my surprise there she was walking around on a frame of empty cells. She was a new queen last year, and had been laying last year so must have mated. She was marked and looks just fine.
    I moved a frame of honey to face onto the frame the queen was on and put a frame of capped brood from one of the other hives, hoping some newly hatched bees might boost the numbers and stimulate her maternal instincts!
    Can I do anything else? I suspect this colony will die but don't understand why the queen is not laying.
    Thanks

  2. #2
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Default

    I don't know either, Richard, but I wondered whether she is a late-season queen? Perhaps that could have affected how she got mated.
    Kitta

  3. #3

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    Thanks Kitta
    That may be right because I struggled with that colony last year and I don't think she mated till late June or early July. Maybe she has run out of eggs?

  4. #4

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    She'd be laying drones if she had run out of sperm, you could try giving them some 1:1 syrup with a contact feeder to stimulate some laying.

  5. #5

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    Hi RDMW
    I think you have done the right thing just a matter of waiting to see what happens
    The new bees from the sealed brood might get you to a point where there are some drones about and you will have more options

    Sent from my LIFETAB_S1034X using Tapatalk

  6. #6

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    Thank you for all that. I will certainly feed them.
    Drone ranger - plz could you elaborate on why having drones might help. Could the queen mate again?


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  7. #7

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    No, you might be able to raise a new queen or they would supercede. I've got one in a similar situation one frame of 3 day old eggs and a few bits of sealed brood here and there. I put a feed on, see what happens.
    They will either go for it or not. In contrast my other hive looks like Heathrow airport the amount it's flying and expanding. Good luck.

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  8. #8
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    I'd be astounded if this colony recovered from the current situation if the local conditions are allowing others to flourish. I'm afraid I'd chalk this one up to a winter loss/spring dwindle or whatever. I wouldn't take resources from other colonies to boost it. By doing so you're holding them back.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by RDMW View Post
    Thank you for all that. I will certainly feed them.
    Drone ranger - plz could you elaborate on why having drones might help. Could the queen mate again?


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    alclosier is right RDMW

    Your queen cant mate again

    The next thing to try would be a frame of young larvae

    Hopefully the bees will superceed your queen if she is no good

    It takes 15 days to hatch and around 7 days before a new queen flies

    But Drones have to be available to mate with and they take a lot longer to hatch and be sexually mature

    So depending where you live there might be a while to wait before there are any drones available

    You could buy a queen and replace her but the problem is the hive may well fail anyway

  10. #10
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    DR ... Ullapool ... I don't know the area but suspect that sexually mature drones are likely to be in short supply for the next month at least.

    "very few bees" in the original post ... probably not enough to keep the larvae warm and they're old, old bees ...

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