This plan went wrong. Lost queen.

[Bakersdozen]

This was a beekeeping first for me.  I hope someone can tell me what I did wrong, if it was my fault. I have never had a failure when introducing a new queen, until now.
I introduced 2 queens in cages with attendants, Wednesday evening.  I had just picked up 2 queens Wednesday after work. The weather forecast called for cool, cloudy, and off and on rain for the next week.  It was still daylight, not raining, and so I thought I would introduce the queens then and reduce stress on them. First hive, no problems.  Second colony was going all right until it started to rain.  I kept the queen cage dry until I could put her in.  It was about 55 degrees. I took 9 stings from this colony.  Today, Sunday, I returned to release the queens.  First hive, no problems.  In the second colony first appearances seemed good, but the queen was dead in the cage and the attendants were alive.  I released the attendants and they were accepted with no problems.  A quick look at frames revealed nothing but scattered drone brood.
I am wondering if they let her die because of a laying worker, or there is a bad queen in there, or she died for reasons beyond my control, like hurt in transit?  I would have thought, at the very least, they would have taken care of her even if there were other factors involved.  What do the experts say?

[Lburou]

Very interesting report Bakers.  I've have had dead queens on delivery, and dead queens installed in the hive without drone brood present.  But, your report of drone brood raises the index of suspicion for a pseudo queen in the hive.  Now, I put a drop of honey on the screen to tide them over for a few days, just in case, it usually disappears in five minutes. 

Where did you get queens this time of year?

[Bakersdozen]

My local guy, said they came from one of the Carolina's.  In past years he got queens from California.  Due to the weather in CA he made other arrangements.  I am going to call him this afternoon.  Perhaps I can get a refund (fingers crossed) or a replacement at no charge.  Sometimes I bounce questions off of him.  He is my go to for wooden ware, package bees and queens. He has been beekeeping for over 50 years. 

[Perry]

Queen acceptance is never 100%. We do the best we can but sometimes it doesn't work out. In my experience you will usually lose 1 out of 10, often times more. Last year was not a great year for queens for me, 13 out of 40 were bum! At $40 a pop that was not acceptable so I no longer will buy imported queens. Perhaps the bees can sense improper mating or something they don't like.
I would think in your case the drone brood suggests laying workers and she wasn't going to be accepted.

[Bakersdozen]

Perry, I wondered if that was the case.  My guy is going to replace her.  He had never heard of the queen dying but the attendants living.  I have seen the attendants get balled when opening the cage. That is why I waited and watched them go down in between the frames.  i will do a shake out before introducing another queen.

[Jen]

This is perplexing... got me to thinking too much.

I think I may have run into this same problem if my memory serves me right. Last year had a frustrating time trying to get one of my nucs queened. Crazy Calif weather

  1. So I'm wondering, if I know that we have a hive with a laying worker, maybe we shouldn't introduce a new queen in the first place?

  2. But then... what do we do with an unqueened hive?

  3. Then it occurred to me that I was using my own queen cells from a hive that swarmed. That is how I queened all 8 of my nucs last year.

   Would there be any difference for the queens to be excepted... if we requeened with purchased mated queens, or from a queen cell that has to hatch and then go on mating flights?

[Perry]

If you have laying workers, queen and queen cells will probably not be accepted. The best way to get around that is to introduce a fresh frame with open brood once a week for a couple of weeks and the pheromones coming off that brood will start to inhibit the laying workers. The bees will then (sometimes) either accept a new queen or start to raise their own.

[kingd]

I had that last year with one of my queens,She was dead but the few that were with her alive. I never even thought to watch them as I let them go.
 I figured she couldn't handle the stress of shipping or got killed through the cage.

 I am glad she is getting replaced for you,I never even thought to ask about mine.

This year I am going to get queen cells from my survivors instead of ordering queens just to see how the daughters
will do, of course that is today,I might change my mind and order some queens later.

[riverbee]

bakers, with what you described; queen dead in the cage, attendants accepted, i don't think it was anything you did. not sure about the drone brood that is present. i have had queens croak in the cage a couple times. i was sent replacements. what was the reaction of the bees when you set the cage in? you said you took 9 stings from this hive, so a bit defensive? also, i am wondering how long the hive has been queenless?