Queenless Topbar Hive?

[Jon]

Hello,
I am a fist year keeper with a Topbar hive on the west side of Madison. Two weeks ago hive inspection showed no eggs or brood. I checked again today, there are cells with caps that bubble out like drone cells however they are smaller in diameter and have maybe 5-10 of these cells sporadically spaced on each frame. Also, no action on queen cells in the hive. Earlier this season the hive swarmed several times as evidence from busted open queen cells. There are two queen cells that appear in tacked, not capped and have no action around them. There are still several bees but they are slowly declining in number. I would estimate about 4 lbs of bees remain. Any advice, course of action or interest in checking out my hive would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jon

[262jp]

Any larvae inside the uncapped queen cells?  If so you could either allow them to finish those cells and hope they raise their own queen or at this time of year you may want to just buy a mated laying queen and get the hive back up and running before it declines too far.  you are 5 weeks from eggs and 8 weeks from brood emerging if you try to let them raise a queen at this point.

[Greg V]

Jon says:
       Two weeks ago hive inspection showed no eggs or brood. I checked again today..................
Odds are still no eggs or brood two weeks later and those queen cells are empty.

Yes, pretty much need to get a new, laying queen I would think at this point.
Not much time/bees left for a full replacement project go through.
Not easy to get a frame of egg/larvae either (unless you have them on your yard).

It looks to me this is another case where keeping a single hive only is a setup for a failure.
This case could have been tested/prevented by a frame of eggs/larvae from a stand-by hive two weeks ago or even earlier.
Really should follow the "three hive rule".

[Jon Bleier]

Anyone have a mated queen locally available for sale?

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[Matthew Hennek]

I have local queens available.  Please contact me off-forum.

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