BBKA Forum

Hello all,

I posted two weeks ago about a possible Queenless colony and thought I would get some more thoughts after inspecting them at the weekend.

After finding no eggs, larvae or brood of any type two weeks ago I put in a test frame of eggs, larvae and capped brood from another colony. The inspection at the weekend revealed that the bees had capped the open brood on this frame and had not constructed any queen cells . However on two different frames I found single queen cups with single eggs in them. I couldn't see eggs anywhere else.

The colony still has a healthy population but the activity I observed from the hive entrance was greatly reduced. There was the odd one bringing back pollen and a lot of what looked like young bees hanging about the entrance not doing very much.

Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated.

I inspected a colony a week or so ago with what I hoped would contain a mated queen. There were a couple of queen cups with eggs in and a couple of eggs on one frame and polished cells in the middle of the brood area. "What are they playing at?" was my first thought. A few days later the queen was laying well. I assume she was just starting when I first looked and I think that sometimes the colony will get an egg to a queencell as an insurance policy in case she doesn't work properly. (Getting an egg to a queencell is either persuading the queen to lay in one or moving it, which they definitely do).
With polished cells as you reported previously, there is still a fair chance of a queen being present although she is taking a long time to get going! If she is not laying next time, more intervention may be necessary.

You have up to around five weeks before it is too late for the Queen to get mated..after having three laying worker colonies in the past i start to panic after the four week mark..

If you start seeing this panic.