Queenlessness - How to Detect It

Usually the absence of eggs is evidence of queenlessness. There are however several exceptions to this rule. During the winter brood rearing often ceases altogether for perhaps a month's time. This is known as the broodless period and while it lasts, eggs are the exception rather than the rule in normal colonies. A colony may have a virgin queen and yet no eggs. One thing you may depend upon, a colony on becoming queenless will always start queen cells if it has larvae from which to start them. Now in due time these cells will hatch and freshly hatched cells will be pretty good evidence of a virgin queen. But suppose, as often happens, that our virgin is lost in mating, what then? The colony will be hopelessly queenless. A bee man will instantly recognize this condition by their demoralized behavior and the peculiar sound they make. But if you are in doubt just give them a comb containing young larvae from another hive. If they are queenless they will begin building queen cells on it within a day. If there is a virgin in the hive they will not start cells. So the rule is that a queenless colony will have queen cells or else will start them if given an opportunity to do so. It sometimes happens that a colony will appear queenless when they have a queen that has become incapable of laying, or perhaps a virgin that will not mate or who cannot mate because the drone season has passed. In such a case she must be gotten rid of before a new queen can safely be introduced. The brood test above described will show her up.

Laying Workers-Drone Layers

LAYING WORKERS: In a previous chapter

I explained that worker bees were undeveloped females in which the reproductive organs found in the queen bee were present in microscopic outline but without function. This is true in the case of a normal queenright colony. But when a colony has been hopelessly queenless for several weeks it often happens that some of the workers will develop the ability to lay. On close examination it will be seen that the eggs are not normal in appearance and that anywhere from one to a dozen are deposited in single cells. A few of the eggs may hatch but the larvae that come from them either dies during incubation or, if it emerges at all, produces nothing but stunted clones, never normal bees. Queencells may be started around some of the larvae but they never produce a queen.

It is just about impossible to introduce a laying queen into a laying worker colony or to get them to accept a queen cell. The practical beeman usually breaks up such a colony by shaking the bees off the combs which are given to normal colonies. The bees go back into the empty hive where they are later killed by a charge of calcium cyanide. If the laying worker colony is strong and a nectar flow is at hand it may be worth while to apply the dumping treatment. It is carried out as follows. Carry the hive to a spot fifty yards away and there shake and brush the combs free of bees then dump the remaining bees on the ground. Now reinstate the hive and combs on the original stand and give them a comb of fresh brood with eggs and adhering bees from a normal hive. If you have a mature queencell for them a day or two later, so much the better. The theory is that the laying workers are unable to fly back home and so are left to perish. If the treatment is successful the colony will raise normal queencells on the introduced brood or accept the introduced queencell. I have never been able to detect laying workers by eye and doubt if anyone can do so.

DRONE LAYERS: Normal queens lay either worker (female) eggs or drone (male) eggs at will as already explained under "The Queen. " This selective power is sometimes lost or seriously impaired unusually in the case of aged and declining queens. In such cases drone brood will be found developing in worker cells, sometimes interspersed with worker brood, sometimes entirely drone brood. It is quite evident that the queen is doing her best to produce workers but, her fertility being exhausted, only drones result. This condition may be detected by the exaggerated and irregular appearance of the capped brood and the fact that it is usually in worker cells. There is nothing to do but kill the queen and requeen the colony.

How to Find a Queen

There are various ways or methods of finding a queen, but after all it remains a matter of practice and keen eyesight. The queen differs from the other inmates in shape, size, behavior and sometimes in color. In spite of all this you may be looking right at her and yet not see her. Once you get your eye on her she looms up like a haystack.

Normally the queen seldom if ever leaves the brood area but she is just as apt to be found on one brood comb as another. The disturbance incident to opening, smoking, etc., is apt to start the workers running here and there and the queen may follow. So it is desirable to proceed as quietly as possible. Remove and examine two combs from the side of the brood chamber. Set them outside of the hive. Then examine the remaining combs. Failing to find her, repeat the examination, keeping watch of the walls and bottom of the hive as you go. If this fails then close the hive and try again after the lapse of several hours. As a last resort tack a queen excluder entrance guard over the entrance and spread a newspaper on the ground in front of the hive. I next shake all the bees onto the paper finally dumping the hive there also. I then restore the hive and replace the combs in it and put on the cover. The workers will soon find their way back through the entrance guard but the queen and the drones will be found on the lighting board unable to get in.

If robbing is imminent do not resort to the latter method except late in the day. Italian queens are usually easy to find. Their bees are quieter and remain on the combs during manipulation. The bright color of the queens helps to distinguish them. In the case of black bees all these points are reversed. They are very panicky and the queens are black as crows. A virgin queen is more difficult to find than a layer. She is apt to take wing till the disturbance is over. The entrance guard method will get her.