Queen Failures

[The Poot]

Hi Adam, thanks for the reply.
It's great to be a junior again at 63!
It seems that A was laying really well very early in the Spring and the colony was building well. Then I was unable to check for a few weeks (working long hours and weekends were wet or cold) and next check I found no eggs or brood and later laying workers. There was no evidence of an attempt to raise a queen. I did manage to requeen - I moved the colony across the garden and allowed the flyers back into a new hive. The introduced queen was accepted but after a couple of weeks ceased laying. The flyers dwindled and the hive then robbed out.
Queen B disappeared - I can only assume seen off by an unnoticed virgin. The colony is now building well but I've not found the queen - they are "runners" on the comb and difficult to inspect. Having closed down to a two bee space entrance the robbers have given up and peace is restored. So all is not lost.
I have a bait hive out and a nuc on order as I'm determined to get to three colonies into the Winter - then I'll have more strength in depth next Spring. Or at least that's the theory!
Thanks again for your reply. I have experienced a very different set of circumstances since moving into the countryside, including now a lack of forage in a green desert!
All the best,

[prakel]

I have experienced a very different set of circumstances since moving into the countryside, including now a lack of forage in a green desert!

Really? In Dorset?

[The Poot]

Hi Prakrit, unfortunately yes; I'm in an area of fields for cattle, grass for silage and so on. In a valley too so my bees didn't benefit from the osr on the tops. I can now appreciate how bees can do better in semi urban areas than the countryside. I'm hoping the brambles in the many hedgerows will give a nectar surplus.

[Poly Hive]

Poor Dave's site is not what it was sadly.

There are always going to be problems with queens, let's be honest please. They undertake risky flights (birds) suffer under or poor matings and then we expect them to be lovely egg laying machines. It's not a perfect world, never has been and never will. If I have a nicely performing queen I thank the beekeeping gods and make sure I have a few queens in hand as spares.

PH

[prakel]

If I have a nicely performing queen I thank the beekeeping gods and make sure I have a few queens in hand as spares.

Very sound approach which would be hard to beat!

[prakel]

Hi Prakrit, unfortunately yes; I'm in an area of fields for cattle, grass for silage and so on. In a valley too so my bees didn't benefit from the osr on the tops. I can now appreciate how bees can do better in semi urban areas than the countryside. I'm hoping the brambles in the many hedgerows will give a nectar surplus.

Hi Poot, you've found a lost part of the county which I've thankfully missed! My own experience over the years that I've been here has been much better. Not saying that there haven't been localised (and sometimes blanket) crop failures but nothing on a permanent basis, similarly, I find queen matings down here to be, for the most part, very good although most May's prove to be a let down (this year was something of an exception), August and September are very good in my experience; I know that there can be some concern over drone quality later in the summer but experience has shown good results over a couple of decades in these parts.

[The Poot]

Hello Prakrit,
(Sorry I mis-spelled your name last time)
I moved from Somerset, quite close to Yeovil, where things were generally good, to proper rural Dorset. The hedges are flailed to an inch of their lives in the early Winter, stopping them flowering in the Spring. The fields don't have borders for wild flowers either. I'll have to start an action group or try to educate some farmers I reckon. My first Summer here hasn't gone to plan bee-wise, so it might be that I'm just a grumpy old sod!

[prakel]

Hello Prakrit,
(Sorry I mis-spelled your name last time)

lol

I'll have to start an action group or try to educate some farmers

Yes, I find they respond well to being told how to do their jobs properly.

[The Poot]

"get orff moi laaarnd"

[Adam]

August and September are very good in my experience; I know that there can be some concern over drone quality later in the summer but experience has shown good results over a couple of decades in these parts.

The point made about drone quality in late summer is interesting; I guess this is due to varroa getting a hold during the summer so early matings - if you get the weather - will be more reliable as the drones are less likely to be harmed.