Are some Queens...

[Nock]

Just duds?  That Queen I found in a swarm box still hasn?t laid. It?s been 3 weeks now. She is the one I put in the LW hive. Guess I?m going to do the give tomorrow test and shake what few bee are in there out.

[Ben Framed]

Just duds?  That Queen I found in a swarm box still hasn?t laid. It?s been 3 weeks now. She is the one I put in the LW hive. Guess I?m going to do the give tomorrow test and shake what few bee are in there out.

Have you visually seen her lately? She may be gone. The laying workers most likely killed her. Or, are you in a dearth?

[Nock]

Laid eyes on her earlier doing inspections. She hasn?t laid the first egg. Yeah we are slowing down fast here far as nectar.

[Ben Framed]

Laid eyes on her earlier doing inspections. She hasn?t laid the first egg. Yeah we are slowing down fast here far as nectar.

The reason I ask is because last year two of my better, big hives stopped with brood. Stopped cold turkey.  I thought the queens were gone. I combined one of these by adding a nuc to a 10 frames hive that had eggs and brood.  The other I left alone and as soon as nectar started coming back in. She went back to laying. I bet I had two queens in the newspaper combined hive? Some of us discussed this quite a while back.  But in your case I do not know.

[Nock]

I?m wondering if it?s lack of bees and resources why she isn?t laying?  I could pull a frame from another hive but hate to waste resources if it?s a wasted cause.

[Nock]

Let me add this. When I found here in that swarm box she had shown signs of being mated. There was a hand size of comb that she had laid in.

[Oldbeavo]

Feed the bees some 50/50 v/v sugar and water, if there is no pollen coming then some pollen substitute.
More frequent feeding is better than one big lot.
This may get her to lay and also set up for an increase in bee numbers.

[Nock]

Yeah I?m fixing to start feeding. Also planted some buckwheat to help. I?ve had pollen sub out. They ain?t using it yet. Still seeing natural coming in.

[Ben Framed]

Oldbeavo gave good advice. Give it a try and let us know how this works out. I think you will be happy with the results.

[TheHoneyPump]

The question: are some queens duds.
Answer:  YES, absolutely.

For your queen:  3 weeks of nothing is exceptionally ->bad<- unless your climate right now is fall or winter.   If where you are it is supposed to be summer, then yes she is not to be tolerated and must be squashed immediately.  She may be laying blanks, and the bees removing them as quickly as she laying them. Or she is not laying at all.  Both, either, are untenable situations in a summer period.

Sure, sure, yeah, she may be taking a -break-.  However, that should be only acceptable to you if the hive is already packed with bees and brood and honey.  If that isn?t the situation then off with her head. 

Try the feed.  It may stimulate.  But if she is doing nothing when she should otherwise be working, why fill the trough eh.

[Oldbeavo]

I agree with HP, some queens are duds.
Advice given is on the info supplied and as the queen has not been seen lately there is limited info about her or whether she is still there.
Most dud queens I have seen are usually not well formed in the abdomen, if elongated they are thin. And tend to be hard to find.
If I found a queen like that she would be replaced.
To feed or not, if the nectar flow is on the decline and you are going to revive the hive, then it may not hurt.

[FloridaGardener]

So on the topic of laissez-faire queens, I have two queens that are nice friendly colonies.  I pull a frame of brood or stores now & then...but they aren't expanding.  One superceded in April.  One got a little honeybound in May and I added 3 empty frames to a 3-frame broodnest (all I had at the time).  They always seem to be floating at 25 medium frames...ebb and flow on the honey based on how much they're feeding to their progeny...despite overwintering fine and a decent flow since February. 

I mean, every other hive - including 2020 swarms - is still increasing in size despite the fact that I'm siphoning off frames for splits.

So I was reading either Dave Cushman or Roger Peterson and the comment was made that 'the colony size is the colony size' indicating that some genetics mean small colonies, and others large colonies.

To support this idea was my own experience of an extraction job in an attic where an undisturbed colony had lived for years under a tile roof of a bayou-front home.  Think: well cooled, plenty of forage.  There were over FORTY huge combs and not a single swarm cell on them.  If that was correctly assessed, this particular queen could reign over (we estimated) 200 pounds of biomass, keep expanding, and not feel the inclination to swarm.

Yet I have these two queens that seems like they've hit a "setpoint" and are really happy at 25 medium frames.

Whatcha think?

[TheHoneyPump]

You may be right on the genetics size thing.  On the other hand ... my experience also says that hives that are not doing much are too comfortable.  When bees are seen washboarding, they are definitely WAAAY too comfortable.  Go rob them, hard. I mean really hard. Take everything away but one comb of food. Empty the pantry, all the closets, and footlockers. Then see what they will do.

If they fall flat on their antenna, then yes they are/were duds and good riddance.  But, I will wager that there will be a marked uptick in activity, broodrearing, and beezyness.

[Bob Wilson]

So that is why the little swarm I caught off one of my hives seems lazy. The queen is slim and was hard to find. She lays and the workers cap, but she only works to keep 5 frames of a 6 frame nuc full. My other hives are still building 2 combs a week, while the 6th frame in this nuc has stayed empty for a month.
Should I kill her/requeen now, seeing we are about to enter our summer dearth?

[Nock]

The question: are some queens duds.
Answer:  YES, absolutely.

For your queen:  3 weeks of nothing is exceptionally ->bad<- unless your climate right now is fall or winter.   If where you are it is supposed to be summer, then yes she is not to be tolerated and must be squashed immediately.  She may be laying blanks, and the bees removing them as quickly as she laying them. Or she is not laying at all.  Both, either, are untenable situations in a summer period.

Sure, sure, yeah, she may be taking a -break-.  However, that should be only acceptable to you if the hive is already packed with bees and brood and honey.  If that isn?t the situation then off with her head. 

Try the feed.  It may stimulate.  But if she is doing nothing when she should otherwise be working, why fill the trough eh.

Her time ended yesterday.

[FloridaGardener]

Oh no! The dreaded "hive tool test" for your queen, Nock! Perhaps she will become swarm lure for another colony.

With my status-quo queens:  I'll rob them hard when the sabal palm inflorescenses start  popping up, in a week or so.  Then they'll have a heavy flow to make up for it.

I get calls from people with kids who just want one hobby hive to boost vegetable gardens.  They don't want to keep chasing swarming bees. I did think this type of gentle, steady genetics would be a good selection for them.