Do I need to re-queen, or am I missing something...?

[CpnObvious]

Good afternoon, folks!  Before I go into detail of what I'm seeing, I'll give you the first bit of background.  This is what I posted about this hive several weeks ago:

041315 - Hive OR1:  I checked on OR1 yesterday.  They were less than pleased about my presence!  LOTS of bees!  They had larva in all stages, but no eggs???  I found the queen and watched walk around on a frame for about 5-8 minutes.  She was wandering all over the place looking for a place to lay, but she never did.  I don't know what to make of that.  I found it very strange.  There were plenty of bees around her.  There were even a couple that went up to her backside almost seemingly trying to convince her or stimulate her to lay.  She's very large and plump.  I was all by my lonesome, so I couldn't get my phone out to record, otherwise I would have.

I had also commented that there were some signs of K-Wing.  Two weeks ago I put two MAQS strips into the hive to start the year off with as few mites as possible.  The first week they were in, the temperatures dropped below the "use" range of the strips, so I left them in the following week, last week.  I know this can slow down laying.  I found the queen again during yesterday's inspection, watched her again, NOT laying.  I went through all two frames.  There PLENTY of pollen, honey, and nectar stored.  I saw brood in all stages of development... BUT NO EGGS and only a dozen capped worker cells on each frame, NOT clustered.  Random spots throughout the frame!  There were not frames of capped brood, like in my other hive, or the pictures posted.  Don't get me wrong, there's certainly no shortage of bees!  Is it possible that I just don't see HER eggs, but have no problem seeing my other queen's eggs?  I just can't figure this out.  There were a couple queen cups here and there, but no indication they were doing anything with them other than practicing: no eggs, nothing capped, very short.  There are no signs of supercedure...  I have no idea what's going on.  The hive seems to be exceptionally strong and plentiful.  This was a VERY strong hive ending last year, and they overwintered great.  I just don't get it!

Do I give it a couple more weeks now that I've removed the MAQS?  Do I find a new queen?  Do I bring the hive out into the woods to help a bear find it?

Yours in frustration,
~Jeff

[iddee]

"" I saw brood in all stages of development.""
""no eggs, nothing capped, ""

I don't understand. Are these two quotes not opposite each other?
Please explain.

[CpnObvious]

So throughout the hive there were a FEW capped worker brood here and there.  Literally, a few.  Maybe 6-12 (max) per frame side.  Not clustered together.  In some cases there might have been two touching.  There was not an overabundance of capped drone brood either.  I would say the amount of drone brood was perfectly acceptable, maybe even a little low?

In the frames, though not as much as I thought I should expect, there was larva in all stages.  Teenie tiny, a little bit bigger, and so on.  I just wasn't seeing eggs in this one or full frames of capped brood.

Did that help, maybe?

[efmesch]

Sounds weird to me. 
I see two possible options ahead for you:

1. Bear with her.  Let the queen stay in the hive for a few more weeks, until time proves her to worthy or worthless.  In the meantime your hive will most likely get considerably weaker and with it, the chances for a good yield from a strong hive.  I would call this the "curiosity satisfying method".

2. Replace the queen as soon as you can, with a quality queen, either purchased or from one of your other hives, a queen worthy of bringing this hive back to growth and toward being a productive hive for this season.  I would call this the "practical, realistic method". 

I know the terrible feeling a beek has when it comes to eliminating a queen, especially one that has been at the helm of a really good family.  But, sometimes one has to realize that, for whatever the reason may be, good queens don't last forever and sometimes they have to be dethroned before they swarm or die of old age, even if the beekeeper doesn't know just what is wrong with her.

I think it's obvious which option I favor.

[iddee]

Rather than a few weeks, I would check them in exactly one week. All the open brood you saw should be capped in a week. Then if you have very little capped brood, your hygienic bees are fighting a terrible mite load.

If the open brood has capped, and there is more open brood, than I would wait to see what she does then.

[Jen]

"Do I bring the hive out into the woods to help a bear find it?
 
     lol No! don't do that.

     In my experience, I have seen this scenario before. Okay, you know you have a queen and that's good. What I'm wondering is if queen has any laying room. When my hive was like this, most of the cells were plugged up with larvae of several sizes, nectar, and pollen. There simply was no more room for her to lay in.

Do you have any frames laying around that have pulled wax ready to go? if so, I would put those frames in the hive and see if you get eggs in those frames. Check back in 3 days.

Do you know about how old this queen is?

[LazyBkpr]

Rather than a few weeks, I would check them in exactly one week. All the open brood you saw should be capped in a week. Then if you have very little capped brood, your hygienic bees are fighting a terrible mite load.

If the open brood has capped, and there is more open brood, than I would wait to see what she does then.

 

   I MIGHT even pull a nuc and put this queen in it, and get a GOOD queen in that production hive NOW rather than waiting and worrying..  then you get two things..
   1 = production hive!!
   2 = nuc to grow and watch and see what is happening.. if it turns out the bees are THAT hygienic you dont want to kill that queen. 

   It will be easy to fuss with the nuc every week, and you wont be hurting honey production..  if it turns out the queen is full of gas instead of eggs you can re combine the nuc when you AXE the queen.

[tecumseh]

my own thinking tend to follow along with iddee.   sounds like the laying pattern is getting pretty erratic which could 1) mean the queen is running out of juice or 2) mites + hygienic bees or (or course) both.  could it be that your prior mite treatment was ineffective?  did you perhaps notice any varroa feces in the brood area?

[CpnObvious]

The official answer: YES, I will have to requeen.  This is too bad because she's big, plump, fat, looks good & healthy... But has a laying pattern worse than birdshot at 100 yards (or 91.44 meters for my friends up north    ).

And to make matters worse:  The 2 brood boxes are almost completely honey bound and they're not touching the honey super up top.  Not drawing the comb at all!  My other hive has drawn out all 8 frames and is filling them in a matter of 2 weeks!  Unfortunately, the queen made it up there and laid a few eggs.  I made sure she was down below yesterday and put on an excluder.

On the upside, I installed a new package Friday.  I had 10 almost completely drawn frames for them.  Maybe I'll take an empty frame or two from them and swap it a honey-bound frame from the other hive?

Now I have to hunt for a queen supplier...

[LazyBkpr]

Rather than a few weeks, I would check them in exactly one week. All the open brood you saw should be capped in a week. Then if you have very little capped brood, your hygienic bees are fighting a terrible mite load.

If the open brood has capped, and there is more open brood, than I would wait to see what she does then.

 

   I MIGHT even pull a nuc and put this queen in it, and get a GOOD queen in that production hive NOW rather than waiting and worrying..  then you get two things..
   1 = production hive!!
   2 = nuc to grow and watch and see what is happening.. if it turns out the bees are THAT hygienic you dont want to kill that queen. 

   It will be easy to fuss with the nuc every week, and you wont be hurting honey production..  if it turns out the queen is full of gas instead of eggs you can re combine the nuc when you AXE the queen.

   Are you SURE there are not extenuating circumstances?
   Put her in a nuc...   wait 4 days, and go through the hive, destroy ANY/ALL queen cells, and give them a frame of eggs from your good queen..

   Then you get to play with the nuc and see what she is doing and why she is doing it.....