Queenless

Here's a nice YouTube clip from Discovery News on CCD.

As it turns out, the accidental nuc may have been my swarm after all. I eventually found the queen, who was on her last legs, and died just outside the nuc. Though my queens weren't marked, she was a dark queen, chocolate brown to black. The bees left the nuc and returned to the hive (presumably) the same day, without the queen. She was pretty much dead when I found her, except for random leg motions. Various bees were trying to sting her (why? I don't know!). I caged her, and saw the occasional weak leg movement, but she was a goner. That all was on August 19.

By September 1, it was clear the hive next to the nuc was queenless. No eggs, no larvae, just capped brood. I ended up pulling the whole hive apart after I saw a bee dragging out a newly hatched bee with deformed wings (see picture above). Though I haven't seen any other signs of varroa, I was worried that a bee with deformed wings might mean high mite loads and/or virus problems, so I decided to do a powdered sugar treatment.

If you Google "sugar dusting" or "powdered sugar varroa," you'll get plenty of hits. The method I used on the first hive--the one that was ok--was the simplest: open the colony, remove the honey supers, and dump two cups of powdered sugar over the bars, use my brush to brush it between frames. The bees were startled, but they didn't boil out.

When it came to the second hive, I wanted to get a good look through it, since it was the one that had thrown out the bee with the deformed wings. That is when I discovered that they were, in all likelihood, queenless. This hive has three mediums as brood boxes and a medium honey super. I pulled the medium super, then started pulling out frames from the three medium brood boxes. I saw capped brood, both workers and drones, some in the process of chewing their way out (and therefore, 21-24 days old), but no eggs and no larvae. The bees were defintely more nervous on the comb than usual, another sign of queenlessness.

Same in the next box, same in the very bottom one. I saw a couple of empty queen cups, but no queen cells, occupied or empty. It was like they had swarmed to the nuc but without queen cells left behind. But I had been watching the hives the day before, and the activity going in and out was normal. The last time I had a hive swarm, the bees hung out for a day or so, with no activity before they swarmed. There were no signs this time.

Since I had the colony pulled apart, I did the powdered sugar dusting to each medium individually. The bees didn't like it much; they did boil out and make life hard for me as I tried to reassemble the supers with the least amount of "squishing." Eventually, many opted for hanging out on the front of the hive for a day before they wanted to go back inside.

On September 1, fewer than 16 days had passed since I had seen the swarm, so there should have still been queen cells, even if empty. So had I dropped the queen during my last inspection? Hard to believe. I hadn't broken it down or pulled it apart. Still, anything is possible. And if I had dropped the queen, would she have moseyed over to the nuc, with an entourage of thousands?

It's a mystery. But I did end up with a queenless hive. Someone on Beesource asked if I was sure there wasn't a virgin in there somewhere. Nope, not completely sure. But I am sure there are no eggs, no larvae, and no remnants of queen cells. I did see bees bringing in pollen, which I've always read is a good sign, and yet... they're bringing in pollen for a hive without eggs or larvae, so perhaps it's overrated as an indicator of colony health.

So I bought a queen from R. Weaver. I have to admit that I have always wanted to try Buckfast queens--and I mean always, since before I owned bees, because they were mentioned in the very first book I read on bees, John Vivian's Keeping Bees. While Vivian suggests plain ol' Italians for the novice beekeeper, there is something about the story of Brother Adam and his bees that I appreciate. The scientist observing, testing, and crossing strains all in a very low-tech way, and yet, successful.

My experience with R. Weaver was also successful, from start to finish. I emailed on September 4 to inquire whether they had queens, and how soon they could ship, and received a reply the same day that they could ship the next day, September 5. A few more emails to confirm marking and clipping and payment, and we were set and a queen and court on their way. I've never done business with them before, but they are willing to invoice (I offered a credit card, but apparently my credit is good with them). I asked for her to be marked and clipped. My suppliers have never given me the option of marking or clipping before, and I decided to take it. I've always been afraid of marking queens myself, lest I damage a queen, but it is good to have that bright yellow spot on her back, to make supersedure noticeable and finding her in a busy colony easier.

The queen and her retinue arrived safe and sound yesterday, Friday. I opened the envelope right there in the post office to make sure she survived the journey. She and her retinue seemed just fine, and quite lively, as a matter of fact. When I returned home, I put a few drops of water on the candy and wire (as John Vivian suggests), to give them all a drink after their hot journey.

The cage was a typical wooden one, and had no attached hanger. Rather than muck around with something to suspend the cage, I removed a mostly empty frame from the brood nest to give me room, and snugged her between two frames in the middle. In a new colony, I wouldn't do that--it's asking for wild comb to leave so much space, but those frames are already drawn and it should be find for a few days. Some sources suggest improving acceptance by removing her retinue. I admit that I did not do that. If I had an extra queen or was re-queening a queen-right colony, I might have risked it, but I was worried about her escaping and becoming damaged. If this colony has been queenless since August 19th, that's nearly three weeks, making the development of a laying worker a real possibility in the not-too-distant future. The emerging brood suggests about the same dating. I wanted to get a queen in there pronto.

I did not remove the cork over the candy, however, and I omitted that step intentionally. I'd been reading about acceptance rates going down with Russian stock. The stock that I have is from a variety of sources: Buckeye Bee in Ohio, Wixson's here in New York, and whatever wild bees may have mated with a superseded queen.

Since I was busy falling in love last summer, my bees may have gone through all sorts of trauma and supersedure without me noticing. I've never had bees that were "pure" anything, so there's no reason to think they're predominantly Russian... but I figured a slow intro couldn't hurt. After all, it's not like I have a 100 hives to look after. I'm going to give them several days to get used to her--maybe a full week, before I pull the cork.

It did occur to me yesterday that I would like to get one of those cages that allow the queen to lay eggs, pretty much guaranteeing her acceptance.

We're finally getting some rain today and tomorrow. The smell of goldenrod has been wafting from the hives, so I have no doubt the bees are finding nectar, but it has been dry lately.

Even though my bees live in a residential neighborhood, there has been plenty of forage for them, so far. This area was a farming area even 50 years ago, with orchards and fields of clover for dairy herds. The clover is still in the lawns, along with plenty of dandelions and other weeds, and apple trees, black locust, and more are still plentiful. I wondered about fall foraging, but as I explore the area, I see that just as we have some areas on our property that are still thickets, it isn't uncommon here for there to be semi-wild areas on people's property. Few have perfect, manicured lawns here, much to my relief. The old-growth was left alone as people built houses, and on the edges there are things like goldenrod. I've also seen some false bamboo. Around here, it's considered invasive, but the bees love it. There are also some fallow fields less than a mile away--a bit far for really good forage, but there may be others I'm not familiar with (I haven't invaded my neighbors' properties to see what all they have... though I'm occasionally tempted).

I'll be checking my north hive in a few days; I'm hoping that I'll be able to tell how they're accepting her by their behavior.