Queens not laying

[Gscot]

Hi, Just started beehive this year.Checked the hive for queen cells every week and found none. Went on holiday for 2 weeks came home and found a swarm hanging from a tree near the hive,caught it and hived it. Two days later another swarm and managed to catch it.That was the middle of July and up to now no eggs or brood in either. They have queens I have seen them just not laying not even drone cells.the swarm bees are starting to decrease now.Do you think the windy and wet wether in July prevented the queens from mating.Plenty of drones in the maiden hive.Dont suppose any chance of rescue now.

[gavin]

You went on holiday for two weeks - during the swarming season?!

:D

It is just possible that you have queens that have recently come into lay as it is possible that they might wait 6 weeks. If so, fusing the two swarms just might give you a viable small colony if you feed it well.

I presume that you still have the mother colony with laying queen there? If so, uniting your swarms with that one may be the best option.

G.

[Jimbo]

Hi Gscot,

The first swarm you got if it was a large swarm would likely be a prime swarm with the original queen and should be laying. If it was a small swarm then it may be a caste with a virgin queen and may mated late due to the bad weather in July. You could try some feeding to stimulate the queen into laying. I agree with Gavin if you have 1 colony laying you may want to think about uniting the other.

[Gscot]

Hi,Thanks for the reply,the first swarm was large covering about 6 frames the second small about 3.The maiden hive was not laying either but it had 1 queen cell which I left to make sure I had a queen it started to lay about a week ago.I,ve constantly feed the swarms so much that the frames are pretty full .They have left patterns in the centre for the queen to lay.I.ll give it another couple of weeks.

[gavin]

In that case .... your original colony ought to be OK, your 6-frame swarm, if queen-right, may well also survive the winter, but the little one is much more of a doubt.

What all of them need now is young bees. If you are in a location with late forage - Himalayan balsam or ivy (in really warm sheltered spots) - they may do this themselves. Light syrup can help, but only if the colony has plenty of space. If you've packed them with syrup stores then spare empty comb may help. I'm not sure that they would draw out foundation at this time of year.

One other thing to do is something I've learned the hard way - dummy boards to close up any empty space. Thick polystyrene sheets but protected somehow (in poly bags is one way) as the bees tend to regard them as like soft rotten wood and worth chewing right down to something harder. Rascals.

And don't feed them quite so much next year!