Mean Queen

[GJP]

I have an overwintered hive that stopped laying this spring.  I kept adding brood and eggs and got several queen cells.  Did inspections but didn't find the old queen and assumed she was dead!  Kept an eye on the cells and when they were opened I found what I thought was a new queen.  As luck would have it, the queen/hive did not produce any eggs so I assumed the new queen was lost during mating flights, etc. and started adding brood and eggs again.  Last Sunday (5/20) I checked on my newest batch of queen cells and several were opened with a few still capped.  I again found a queen and assumed (yes I know what that says about me!) I had a new queen.  Started thinking about her the next day on the ride to work and wondered if she wasn't a little too dark and mature for a new queen.  Then I started wondering if it's maybe my overwintered queen and she's just been killing off the virgin queens as they are about to emerge!  I did an inspection again last night and all of the cells are now open but I did not find a queen.  Anybody else out there ever experience anything like this?

I added another frame of brood and eggs and will inspect again sometime this weekend.  If I find a queen and no eggs, I plan to pinch her or put her in a nuc with a couple of frames of bees without any eggs and give here a week or two to produce eggs and then pinch her!

Thanks,

Greg

[BeeMaster2]

If you are adding eggs and they produce q cells, sounds like you don't have a queen. I take it they are not producing drones, no laying worker. You might want to combine them with another hive. Their numbers are bro able getting pretty low. If it is still a strong hive, you are on the right track.
Jim

[Javin]

If you are adding eggs and they produce q cells, sounds like you don't have a queen.

There's a number of scenarios where they'll produce queen cells while there's still a living queen.  For instance, if the queen is being superceded because she's shooting blanks (which could be the scenario here from the sounds of it) or if they're overcrowded and prepping to swarm.

[Robo]

Another situation where a marked queen would have helped.

At this point the hive must be pretty weak for going so long with out a laying queen,  or you are weakening your other hives to keep them afloat.  Even if they make new queen cells that does succeed in creating a laying queen, you are a good six weeks before new bees will be born.  At most you will be lucky to get them strong enough for the winter.

Next time consider a laying queen.   Loosing 6-7 weeks in the spring can make the hive unproductive for the year.  Going two to three cycles makes it even worse.