Guilfordbeekeepers.org

I have a hive that made it through this winter but has been struggling all summer. I opened them up today and they are still really week, hardly any brood but the population fills two deeps.

They lost their queen at the beginning of june. so i gave them another one and she laid ok for awhile. then today i found the new queen but she is not laying. when they lost their queen it was right during the honey flow so they had about 4 deep frames full of honey and a bunch full of pollen too. i reorganized those when i put the new queen so there would be room for a brood nest.

the strange thing is that there is also on one frame three supercedure cells. two of them were fully capped and one was ripped open.

i just cant tell what is going on with this hive. its like the hive is killing the queens.

any ideas?

It sounds like the new queen wasn't well bred and they are replacing her. The torn open one could have died in the cell, been full of mites eggs, or something else that they knew and you can't see.
I would leave them quiet for 2 weeks, then check again.

i checked this hive today and there is now no brood again. the hive seems relatively clam for not having a queen. they are still filling two brood boxes with bees, they all move in slow motion compared to the other hives.

i am wondering if there is some kind of disease that is killing the queens, but it seems the bees would die too.

should i requeen?

I would either requeen or combine. In the trading post forum, Larry Tate says he will have some of Wayne's queens in about a week.

do you have an email or phone number for him?

It's in the sticky post. The first one on the trading post forum.

I had sort of a similar issue. Hive was a new package this year. It started out well. Started bearding on the outside and then the higher temps hit. It seemed like the queen just quit. I knew something was not quite right.

I opened it up about three weeks ago and the queen was ok. Didn't seem to be laying and very little brood. I went ahead and put syrup on to feed. Last weekend no bees. No dead bees in the hive or anything. There were some hive beetle larva but not really enough, imho, to be concerned about.

Anyhow, I have the frames in the freezer and will use on the strong hive and start over in the spring with a new nuc or package.