The queen is deservedly called the queen bee. The life of the bee colony directly depends on its activities. If it is lost in the warm season, the family will die in 50-60 days. What if there is no queen in the hive? The main thing is to find out the absence of the queen bee in time and correct the situation.
The content of the article
- 1 Where does the queen go
- 2 How to determine absence
- 3 Lack of brood – what to do
- 4 The absence of a queen – what to do
Where does the queen go
The uterus may be absent for various reasons:
- it is eaten by insectivorous birds during flight;
- was injured and died during a careless examination;
- stopped worming from old age.
Therefore, the beekeeper must constantly monitor his bee colonies in order to determine in time if there is a queen in the hive!
How to determine absence
In large apiaries, it is not always possible to open every hive and inspect the family. The beekeeper is required to be able to determine that there is no queen in the hive without opening it.
Signs of the absence of a uterus in the hive:
1.The first sign of a problem is a family’s loss of interest in collecting pollen. When the queen is absent from the hive, every day the bees need less food for brood, respectively, they use old stocks and practically do not carry new pollen.
It is enough to stand near the hive for less than a minute, watching the flight board, to make sure that the flight bee is actively carrying fresh pollen into the hive. If, in a normal summer, we did not see a single pollen collector in a minute, this is an alarming bell and such a family requires an urgent examination for the presence of a uterus.
2When opening a hive with a queenless colony, the bees behave restlessly, buzz anxiously, take characteristic poses and flap their wings vigorously. Here is an example of the sound effects of an orphaned colony:
3.Next, you need to inspect the nest for a one-day sowing.
If such seeding is found, then everything is in order – the queen is here and does her job. And all other factors are caused by any extraneous reasons.
Lack of brood – what to do
But what if there is no brood in the hive? First of all, you need to establish the reason for its absence:
1.If the uterus has died recently on examination, the fistulous mother liquors should be tightened. This means that everything is in order – nothing needs to be done, the family will straighten out on its own.
2.If there is no ephemeral or queen cells, you can try to find the queen visually.
How to do it read here:
How to find the uterus correctly and quickly
3.If it is found, you need to find out the reasons why there is no seeding.
In this case, there is no brood in the hive:
- if the queen did not fly around after a quiet shift and is still barren – in this case, you just need to wait;
- if the nest runs out of food during the non-tipping period (the queens sow as much brood as the bee colony can feed – during hunger, the worming stops completely).
A family of bees without enough feed needs to be fed with syrup – and the queen will again start her work.
The absence of a queen – what to do
What if there is no uterus in the family?
1.If the queen is not visually detected, a control frame with one-day sowing from any other family is placed in the family.
If every other day bowls for queen cells are stretched on it – this is the main sign of the absence of a queen bee. However, it should be borne in mind that if there is an infertile female in the bee colony, bees can kill her and only then begin to breed a new one. Therefore, you need to absolutely visually make sure that it is absent!
2If the queen cells began to rebuild, you can leave everything as it is – in three weeks the new queen will begin its work.
You can also put a ready-made queen cell in the family at the exit from another family in order to speed up the process of restoring the strength of this bee nest. Or plant a ready-made queen, subject to her availability.
The sooner the absence of the main bee in the hive is discovered, the reasons are clarified and measures are taken to change the situation for the better, the greater the likelihood of a successful correction of the bee colony and preventing it from turning into a colony with the subsequent death of the bees.
