Another Lost Queen

It’s June 10th and it’s only been six days since I checked in on the colony. I wanted to check them so soon again though to see how the queen situation is coming along. Since I didn’t see her or any evidence of her, I am concerned about them If she is no longer in the hive, I hope that they are using the brood that I gave them to make another queen.

The weather is great today, seventy six degrees and sunny. I spent some time watching the foragers before I opened the hive. They are still acting like everything is normal and they are bringing in pollen. The main give away is that they are so grouchy all the time. They get up into my face even before I open the hive up. I am glad that I am fully suited before I even get near the hive.

Once I got into the hive, it was obvious that things are not right. They are not building any new comb and at this point they don’t seem to be making an emergency replacement queen from the bar of brood that I put in. I did not find the queen again this time, so now I know she is gone. The number of bees is getting smaller. That will change a little when the capped brood from the bar hatch, but things won’t get better if they do not replace the queen.

After giving it a lot of thought, I have decided not to requeen the hive. I have already given them two queens and a bar of brood to work with and they have chosen not to for some reason. Now it is just a matter of waiting to see what happens. It seems that they should have already started to make an emergency queen, but maybe they still will. It will be there only hope for survival.