NZBF: Mated queen

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10
1
Sefton
Experience
Hobbyist
Hello

Just after some advice, I placed a mated queen into my hive a week ago and on checking yesterday, I could not locate her and no eggs were visible.

Could it be the case that the queen has flown or should I wait longer to see eggs before I take action?

Thanks

Martin
 
10
1
Sefton
Experience
Hobbyist
I had noticed that there were no visible signs of a queen, including sighting her in the hive, nor any eggs or larvae over a couple of weeks so decided to purchase a mated queen.

Queen cage was fitted to the brood and when I checked three days later had been released.
 
1,030
748
Christchurch
Experience
Hobbyist
So options;
1. She wasn’t mated, and in fact a virgin. So maybe needs time (unlikely)
2. She was not accepted by the hive and killed
3. She’s shy

I would have a chat with the person who sold the queen to you
 

Mark Lawrence

Founder Member
47
67
Christchurch
Experience
Breeder
I had noticed that there were no visible signs of a queen, including sighting her in the hive, nor any eggs or larvae over a couple of weeks so decided to purchase a mated queen.

Queen cage was fitted to the brood and when I checked three days later had been released.
Is it possible that they superseded the old queen and you had a newly emerged virgin running around so you would have had a break in laying so not see any eggs. When you introduced the new queen and she came out of the cage she would have been killed.
You may need to give the virgin time to get mated and start laying.
 

Trevor Gillbanks

Founder Member
10,637
7,219
Palmerston North
Experience
Hobbyist
Is it possible that they superseded the old queen and you had a newly emerged virgin running around so you would have had a break in laying so not see any eggs. When you introduced the new queen and she came out of the cage she would have been killed.
You may need to give the virgin time to get mated and start laying.
Yep. That is why I asked how the hive was determined queenless
 
109
75
Russia
Experience
International
When a queen suddenly disappears, the colony can make a replacement for her. From any larva up to 3 days old. This is the biology of the bee. Plus the egg stage, before it turns into a larva. In total, the colony has 6 days to save itself. If during this period you will harm a new queen, she will be killed with a very high probability. Bees are much closer and more native to what they grow themselves, and not your purchased queen. Therefore, you had to calculate 7 days from the loss of your queen and review all the cells for the presence of queen cells. Sometimes you have to shake off the bees completely, so as not to miss them. you pull out the queen cells, or break them with a beekeeping chisel - the main thing is to kill the larva inside the queen cell. Now the colony has no chance to raise its queen. They feel orphaned, and are ready to accept a new queen. you put a cage with a new queen in the hive and wait a couple of days. the queen will calm down and the bees will feed it. before the release, it is better to check again for queen cells and virgin queens (the latter usually walk on the extreme limits) . And now we are releasing the queen. carefully. that would not take off. A good way is to take a blade of grass, dip it in honey from the honeycomb, and anoint the queen a little. The bee will lick it and transfer the pheromone faster. a good sign is that bees are arranged around the queen in the form of the sun. carefully place the frame back into the hive, and after 5-7 minutes check the condition of the queen again. If the behavior has not changed, then the queen has been accepted.
 
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109
75
Russia
Experience
International
now in your case. If you can't find a virgin queen, take a honeycomb with larvae from another hive and put it in your hive. If bees will grow queen bees, then there is no queen in the hive. (I do not know how legal it is in NZ, because of the danger of transferring AFB, I do not know any other way how a novice can find out the presence of a virgin queen) If it's illegal, then delete my message. After a while, if the bees are not given a queen, the colony will turn brown. Bees themselves will take over the functions of the queen and will lay unfertilized eggs, from which only drones will be born. Such colonies are very difficult to fix.
 
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Reactions: Alastair

Dansar

Founder Member
BOP Club
6,224
5,708
Putaruru
Experience
Commercial
Opening the hive after 3 days from introducing the caged queen can also result in the queen being killed by the colony. Her pheromones haven’t been fully spread around and she can be deemed an intruder and killed.
Better to wait a week, open and check she has been released, if yes, remove cage, close hive, check back in 2 weeks.
 


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