Queen needed?

[Sandra Draus]

Hi,

Newish beekeeper here.  Yesterday, my only hive appears queenless with no brood, no eggs/larvae. Does not appear to have any queen cells either. 10 days prior I noted about 2 frames of brood.I’m thinking they won’t be able to raise their own queen due to no brood anymore? Is that correct? If so, does anyone have a queen available?

Thanks for assist.

[Joseph Bessetti]

It's good to be thinking about finding a queen, but it's somewhat rare for a queen to just disappear and the hive to not start some emergency cells.  If you had 2 frames of brood 10 days ago and it's all emerged now, it tells us that the last eggs were laid by your queen between about 22 and 31 days ago.  If any of those last eggs were raised into an emergency queen, she would have emerged between 6-15 days ago.  Personally, I would wait one more week and inspect again looking for evidence of a new queen before purchasing a mated queen to introduce.  If there is a young queen in the hive that you missed seeing, the bees will kill any queen that you try to introduce.

Joe

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[Jeanne Hansen]

Joe is correct.  Wait another week and look again.  There is a period, when a hive has a virgin queen, when there is no brood at all, because all the workers have emerged before the new queen is strong enough to mate.  It the hive is calm, and especially if the bees are bringing in pollen, the bees are happy.  Wait a bit and see what happens.

JEANNE

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Jeanne Hansen

824 Jacobson Ave

Madison,WI

608-244-5094

[Paul Zelenski]

 If you have a second hive, it never hurts to add a frame of eggs/young larvae to the hive. If they have a queen on the way, they'll just raise it as normal brood. If they are queenless, they'll start raising queen cells at which point you can either let them finish or buy a queen. If you don't have access to a frame of eggs, waiting another week before worrying is the right advice. 

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From: mad...@googlegroups.com <mad...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jeanne Hansen <jeanneh...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2026 9:26 AM
To: mad...@googlegroups.com <mad...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [madbees] Queen needed?

 

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[Sandra Draus]

Thanks to all who replied, much appreciated!

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