Hive problem

[Jessica Kruger]

Hi there,

I was in my hive for the first time since winter today. I was excited because all signs pointed to strong activity but now it's not looking so good. The only brood I saw was drone brood mostly concentrated at the bottom of the frames. From what I've read only drone brood means either laying workers or a drone-laying queen? The former being a disaster probably not worth trying to fix, the drone-laying queen being a disaster but maybe worth trying to fix? This is my only hive left so I'm limited in my options in terms of lending comb from another hive or combining hives. So give it to me straight... Is this hive done? Happy if someone wants to come take a look.

Thanks,

Jess

[Mike Garvey]

Laying workers don't know that they should lay only in drone cells, so if you're not seeing drones in worker cells, you have a queen, but she needs to be replaced.  Note that the colony thinks it is queen right most likely, so you need to remove the old queen, wait 24 hours and introduce a new one.  You don't mention how many bees there are; is the colony otherwise strong?  How many frames (what size frames) of bees are there?

Mike

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[Jessica Kruger]

I have eight frame equipment and there are bees on all frames of two deep boxes. Not very densely populated but certainly active.

Would anyone have any time to poke into my hive tomorrow and find my queen to remove? I'm not confident I'd be able to find her if she's there. NE Bees think they're getting queens in by the weekend so if someone could help me tomorrow I could hopefully requeen Friday.

They're not sure if they're getting Carnolians or Italians. Would you hesitate to requeen an Italian hive with a Carnolian queen? If so any other places to get queens in short order?

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[Mike Garvey]

I believe that Bill Perkins at Ag Hall in JP has two Italian queens. 

Where do you live?

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[Jessica Kruger]

Getting in touch with him now. I'm in Framingham

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[Jessica Kruger]

Thanks for the suggestion, Bill does have one. So that just leaves the question if anyone who is good at finding queens could come and take a look for mine tomorrow? Of course willing to pay you for your time. Thanks all for your help

[Mike Garvey]

Here is another approach if you can't find the queen:

 

You need a queen excluder

Sort your frames so that the ones with the most activity (normally I'd say brood, but you only have drones) and designate them for the top box; designate the empty frames, if you have them, to the bottom box.  Basically your putting your best resources in the top box. Once you've rearranged the frames, shake all the bees into the bottom box and put the queen excluder between the bottom box and the top box.  The idea is to get most of the nurse/house bees in the top box.  They will follow the brood.

Wait a few hours and remove the top box and place it 10 ft or so away with a bottom board and a top cover.  Wait 24 hours and introduce the new queen into the top box (now relocated).  Wait a few days; you will see very little activity from the top box hive since the only bees that remain will be the nurse bees; any foragers who got caught in the move will return to the bottom box.

Now reverse the position of the boxes in your apiary; this will "move" all the forager bees to the top box.  With fewer bees in the bottom box, you may now be able to find the old queen, dispatch her and merge the remaining bees with the top box.

 

Does that make sense?

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