Nuc Inspection - disappointed and confused

[Jen]

I sure did and Thanks Gypsi 

[Bee Commander]

4 weeks ago, I did an inspection on one of my nucs. I found 6 queen cells. Put the lid on and let the supercedure continue.

2 weeks ago, I check to see if queen was out. All queen cells were torn down, the colony was peaceful so I figured queen was out on her mating flight.

Today, 2 weeks later, I check in to see if there is eggs. I found all capped drone brood, larvae and eggs. So the hive is queenless. I was disappointed.

However, there is a queen cup on the bottom frame and the bees are filling it with rjelly. Now I'm confused 

I'm thinking that this time of year is too late for a requeening, and I would have to remove all the frames with drone brood and the nuc would essentially start over. Should I just shake the bees out onto the lawn and let them find new homes?

Hi Jen, this is my first day on this site. I saw your post and had to register just to answer this post. I had the exact same thing happen to me last week with the exception that the queen in my Nuc is laying at a remarkable rate. There were 6 queen cells in this nuc. This queen was mated around the first of September. The hive has already drawn out a second deep and it looks like a hive should look in June. I was terribly confused as it looked like a swarm situation and here we are on the back side of October?! I wound up splitting the hive putting all the frames w/ the q-cells in the nuc and I will see what happens. The chances of a queen getting mated are slim this time of year. Although this hive still had some drones in it! I did not want to lose the original queen. She may just not have mated well and be running out of steam. I'll see what happens. Probably won't know for a few weeks yet.
Where are you in California?

Laurie

[Jen]

Hi Lauri, nice to hear your story. Pretty sure that's what happened to my nuc, superceded queen way to late in the year. Haven't seen that happen before that I know of, so I learned and have a better clue as to what to look for.

[cover it up]

find the queen and if you have a week nuk  put them on the top of the week one with a wire between them give the a hole to get out give them 4to5 day to small other queen then remove wire 50 50 worked for me this year get from iddee

[LazyBkpr]

I have very often seen a late queen act just like a May or June queen, in that she really ramps up production even if it is late in the season. As days shorten and temps fall she will drastically cut back. They typically do not swarm. I am not saying it is not possible, but in general the new queens strong pheromone along with the lateness of the season and usually a bit of a dearth where nectar is not coming in at a high rate like it does in spring will usually convince them that swarming isnt the best idea.

[Bee Commander]

I have very often seen a late queen act just like a May or June queen, in that she really ramps up production even if it is late in the season. As days shorten and temps fall she will drastically cut back. They typically do not swarm. I am not saying it is not possible, but in general the new queens strong pheromone along with the lateness of the season and usually a bit of a dearth where nectar is not coming in at a high rate like it does in spring will usually convince them that swarming isnt the best idea.

Thanks for sharing that. I hope that is what's going on with my situation. Just in case I put the q-cells in a Nuc away from the queen. If my queen is not loosing steam and they were thinking about swarming, I was terrified that I would lose the queen.

[apisbees]

As lazy said about the new queen laying heavily. The colony with a lack of brood would jump on the first few hatched larva and turn them to cells but as the larva amount increases in the hive the urge for the bees to raise queens will be diminished. when the cells are close to emerging the worker bees will have changed from a queenless state of mind to a queen right hive and the bees would not care to protect the cells and will allow the queen to rip them down. It is not just queen pheromones but the presence of brood being fed and raised that suppresses supersedure.

[Jen]

Scott said "I have very often seen a late queen act just like a May or June queen, in that she really ramps up production even if it is late in the season. As days shorten and temps fall she will drastically cut back. They typically do not swarm. I am not saying it is not possible, but in general the new queens strong pheromone along with the lateness of the season and usually a bit of a dearth where nectar is not coming in at a high rate like it does in spring will usually convince them that swarming isnt the best idea."

I think I have that situation going on in two of my hives this late in the season. I 've seen a lot of repeated supercedure in all but one hive (3 hives) this year.

Too date, I'm still seeing plenty of orientation flights.

[Bee Commander]

Scott said "I have very often seen a late queen act just like a May or June queen, in that she really ramps up production even if it is late in the season. As days shorten and temps fall she will drastically cut back. They typically do not swarm. I am not saying it is not possible, but in general the new queens strong pheromone along with the lateness of the season and usually a bit of a dearth where nectar is not coming in at a high rate like it does in spring will usually convince them that swarming isnt the best idea."

I think I have that situation going on in two of my hives this late in the season. I 've seen a lot of repeated supercedure in all but one hive (3 hives) this year.

Too date, I'm still seeing plenty of orientation flights.

Good to know, I feel better that someone else is experiencing this as I could not figure out what the heck was going on especially this time of year.

Thanks!