Queens dead

[JackM]

Did a hive inspection just a little ago and 3 of my queens are gone.  No eggs, no brood, lots of honey.  Ordered 3 just now.  Man, right a peak of flow, the blackberries are just starting to bloom. 

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Mr. Jack, sorry about your queen loss.  In Arkansas, last year, 2017, a lot of queens just vanished.  No  queens cells, just hives with suddenly no queen and no explanations.  I did not experience loss of queens but a lot of experienced fellas did.

We, beeks, discussed this at our monthly bee meeting.  The answer is still not known.

Talk with neighbor beeks and you may find out your not alone.  Good luck with the new queens.
Blessings

[Oldbeavo]

How long ago prior to this did you inspect the hives and see evidence of a queen?
Did you see any sign of remnant queen cells?
If there is no brood the queens have been gone about 3 weeks.

[bwallace23350]

Wow sorry about your losses. Perhaps if you get a queen fast enough you can salvage the honey season .

[Dustymunky]

Is there a chance they swarmed and new queen?s not laying yet?  Been queenless for 3 weeks if no brood. If queen fled or was killed there should have been emergency cells.

 I?m in portland. Been a very active swarm season for me. Fighting to keep my hives from swarming but I caught 3 in swarm traps :)

[JackM]

No queen cells.  Last inspected 2-3 weeks.  Two were splits that had queen cells because I couldn't find the queen.  They were virgins and must have been killed during the mating flight, we had some hard rains about then.  It doesn't matter, such is life.  New queens due Wed or thurs.  Should have enough bees left to make it till first brood hatches.  I have a lot of bees for no queens.

[NasalSponge]

Mr. Jack, sorry about your queen loss.  In Arkansas, last year, 2017, a lot of queens just vanished.  No  queens cells, just hives with suddenly no queen and no explanations.  I did not experience loss of queens but a lot of experienced fellas did.

We, beeks, discussed this at our monthly bee meeting.  The answer is still not known.

Talk with neighbor beeks and you may find out your not alone.  Good luck with the new queens.
Blessings

While last year may have spiked, this phenomenon began about the time varroa made its debut. Pre-varroa the unexplained lost of a queen, especially in the fall, was unheard of. Now, sadly, it is all to normal.

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[beepro]

Keep on making splits from the nuc hives.  Then you don't have to worry about buying queens anymore.

[JackM]

Right now, my concern is getting these hives queen right and with enough honey and brood to survive our wet, long winters.  Varrora cycle, if I have it, is broken by not having any brood.  (Just recently learned that by breaking the brood cycle for a short period of time, simulating winter, and it breaks the mite cycle, WSU study)

It was kind of interesting, as each new hive had more than one virgin queen just emerging when I did the splits.  Also, really interesting, is that the hives stayed mellow without queens.

[JackM]

Keep on making splits from the nuc hives.  Then you don't have to worry about buying queens anymore.

Been doing that for years, first time I ever had to.  Only have one queen right hive and it is recent split and just getting going.  No drones either, not sure if they have just been kicked out or that is it for them this year.

[beepro]

Yes, getting them back to a queen right state is your first priority.   If you want to make one production hive then
combine them into a larger hive.  And use the other 2 queens as support hives making them a one box hive.  It is up to you.

On a flow all bees are gentle even when they are queen less unless you keep the aggressive AHB.   It also means that you're
keeping the gentle type bees in your area.    Hope they can have a queen soon.     In your situation I just make QCs out of them with 1 hive and buy 2
mated queens for the other hives.