non laying queens

[rober]

I have several bred queens that are not laying. they were released & accepted by their hives 2 weeks ago or longer. I actually saw them today.  they are all from the same local breeder. I've had poor layers & drone layers but never non layers. I've given the hives syrup & frames of brood to no avail. anyone care to share their opinions?

[riverbee]

rober,
how do they look? fat and sassy, or skinny things? what 'breed' of queens? and are you in a dearth?

[Barbarian]

I raise my own replacement queens.
I find that if there are plenty of bees in the hive the queen can be slow to lay. No need for more bees.
Moving the hive (to weaken it) can make the Q start laying.

[rober]

they are plump & lively & are VHS Italian queen stock.
update-I just ordered some replacement queens. i'll put the non layers in 2 frame nucs & see if they change their ways befor the go into the pickled queen juice jar.

[Jen]

Hey Rober, I think that new queens who aren't laying right away, or take a break for a couple weeks-ish, get a bad rap. We are just coming thru a little 3 week dearth. Some of the queens stopped laying that whole time, some didn't. One nuc I was getting a bit worried about, gave it a few more days and, wa la, two frames of eggs.

I think in many cases, it's not the queen, it's the bees telling her when to Go and when to Stop for awhile.

[Lburou]

I have several bred queens that are not laying. they were released & accepted by their hives 2 weeks ago or longer. I actually saw them today.  they are all from the same local breeder. I've had poor layers & drone layers but never non layers. I've given the hives syrup & frames of brood to no avail. anyone care to share their opinions?

I wouldn't know what else to try rober...

[rober]

i'm at a loss too lou. it's actually over a month since they were accepted by the hives. like I said above i'm replacing them with new queens & putting them in 2 frame nucs to see what happens.

[Lburou]

I'm hoping Apis or tec will jump in here. 

[Green bee]

 Just curious, how many bees is in the hive. Do they have a lot of room? The reason I ask is seems like I read somewhere that queens may stop laying or only lay enough eggs to suit the population of the hive. In other words she want lay more than the bees can take care of. I had a hive this year I just can’t keep a queen in. After failed attempts of them raising there own queen I ended up buying one. She was in the hive a few weeks and she never laid an egg that I noticed. Thee population drop to the point I dropped it down to a single deep. She started laying after that but it was a very poor pattern. This queen was in a hive that was made queenless to raise queen cells and she was laying good there. I pulled her out today and will be requeening tomorrow. I am to the point of combining this hive a cutting my losses. It sounds like your problem is similar but your queens just aren’t laying at all. But I do feel your pain.

[riverbee]

rober,

are you in a dearth? is there lack of pollen and or nectar?

"they are plump & lively & are VHS Italian queen stock.
update-I just ordered some replacement queens. i'll put the non layers in 2 frame nucs & see if they change their ways befor the go into the pickled queen juice jar."

you can replace them but wonder if you will have the same scenario.........

[rober]

we actually have a decent flow going. I know there are no guarantees with new queens. i'll call it a learning experience.

[Bakersdozen]

I don't know, rober.  When you go to HAS try to find someone who might have an answer.  That's one of the wonderful opportunities when going to those events.
I just think what are the odds that you would get two non-laying queens at the same time?

[rober]

it's actually 4 non laying queens.

[tecumseh]

my first question would be the same as riverbee.  flowers blooming does not necessarily equal to a flow as the period two weeks ago and for about 3 weeks running showed clearly here.  do not know why this happened here but evidently the event spread over to my neighbors B Weaver's queen rearing nuns and in that case they ended up with lots of totally dead mating nuns and little or no queens to show for a lot of work. in all things related to the early rearing of queens and getting them into nuns I have found just a tad bit of sugar syrup increase your success rate significantly.  it often doesn't take much syrup and the difference between a dud and nicely populated and provisioned nuclei is often not much more than a quart of sugar syrup.

4 non laying new queens would suggest to me something else is going on but then again I do not know the reputation or degree of expertise of the person from whom you are buying queens.