Ive been noticeing ALOT of drones flying around one of my hives,, I checked the queen,, couldnt find her,, but the brood pattern is good. ANy ideas??

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), May 18, 2001

Answers

Sounds like you need to requeen. You say you have lots of brood, but did you see larvae or eggs? If not, then you may have lost your queen to a swarm or natural death. Are there lots of drone cells? If the hive is queenless and is left alone, they will raise their own queen, but it is advisable to introduce a commercial queen if high production is important to you. If you had a swarm, there may be an immature queen. They are virtually impossible to find because they are not full grown and look just like a worker. There are several methods to separate and find the queen. The one I know best is as follows: On a hot day where you know the weather will be hot and sunny all day, start in the morning around 10:00. Place a large piece of plywood about thirty feet behind or to one side of the hive (NOT in front) and take the whole hive there. Disassemble the hive and shake all the bees out onto the plywood and reassemble the empty hive back in its original position. The bees will gradually return to the hive leaving the queen with a small cluster of attendants on the plywood. If you have a large population of drones, most of them may stay behind as well. If you still are having trouble finding the queen in the cluster that remains, try smoking them lightly to get them to move and fly. If there is a queen, you will eventually find her this way. If you simply cannot find her, then chances are, your hive is queenless and you need to introduce a new queen immediately. Do this by removing a frame from the brood chamber and wedging the queen cage face down between two frames. Allow the bees to release the queen themselves, or if she is still trapped in the cage after two to three days, then remove the candy plug and release her yourself.

Large numbers of drone ususally indicate an aging or poorly laying queen. Most beekeepers requeen at least every two years.

This is exactly what happened to one of my hives this spring. My oldest hive went through the winter with a two year old queen. The population of the hive was strong, but there were tons of drones and at the end of April I could not find the queen. I never did find the queen and they have accepted the one I introduced. They'll be ready for their third honey super in a week or two.

Hope this helps.

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), May 18, 2001.

Skip is right. will add a few suggestions. you may have a drone laying worker, she will not accept a new queen. when you do the plywood method (or dump in the grass)of finding the queen, when the last cluster is left with no queen in it or old & sick queen, destroy them so your new queen will be accepted. somethimes i use a small nail or wire to make a small tunnel in sugar candy after pulling plug on queen cage. it makes it a bit eaiser & faster for workers to release queen. old queen, or drone laying worker NEED to be removed. enjoy the bees! larry

-- (Nuts4bees@aol.com), May 20, 2001.

The advice given is great (I may use some of it next time!) I would add that you will want to make sure to ask your supplier what the best method would be to have a queen shipped to you. I had to requeen a couple years ago and had a horrible time getting a live queen. The 3rd time was the charm, but it all took so long I nearly lost my hive. I ended up having her mailed in the normal mail. My express mail order arrived dead 3 days after the 3rd queen arrived alive!! The silver lining was that now I have a demo queen for school programs!

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), May 21, 2001.