REGARDING           RE> Fall Re-queen
 
Julie Brunner wrote:
"Earlier in the summer I thought that my hive was queenless, due to a lack of
brood, but resident beekeepers thought that they were just focusing on the
honey flow instead.  But they never moved into the honey supers.
 
I have had massive wax moth invasion, robber bee battles and ants, and still
no brood.  The colony had begun to diminish so I ordered a new queen.  It
took two weeks due to post office mishandling to receive a live queen, which
I placed in the hive.  A week later I noticed she was still caged, so I
released her.  Now a week later I see the queen is alive with attendants,
but is not laying yet.  There are only a few frames left with bees.
 
Now my question; can this queen revive this colony, or should I just begin
the process of trying to purchase a new hive?  I can't wait until spring
because my husband uses the bees to treat his arthritis."
 
There are a number of issues raised here.  Let me try to deal with them as I
see it.
1)  The hive certainly was queenless when you first inspected it, because you
found no brood.  Any advice that the bees were too busy with other matters is
pure nonsense.  During the spring, summer and fall a healthy colony will
always be raising brood.  It is too bad you took this poor advice from local
"beekeepers", because it set back any timely response.
 
2) An indication of a hopelessly dying hive is massive wax moth invasion,
along with ants and robbing.  When this happens it is pointless to try to save
the hive.  If you had a second hive (always a good idea!) you could have
transferred bees on comb to that one during the honey flow time.  However,  it
was too late at that time to order a new queen and expect anything to come of
it.
 
3) The only thing to do is get a new hive of bees.  Yes, it is too late to
start package bees, even if you could get them, but perhaps you might buy a
colony from a local beekeeper.  Your present colony is now beyond help.  I
doubt the queen will ever do anything in a hive without any morale, and weak
to the point of dying.  If you can get a local colony, you might be able to
combine the good frames of your present one with the new, but this might also
be an excersize in futility.
 
4) When you evaluate a possible new hive, be sure that it has good stores for
the winter and a good brood pattern in the hive bodies.  Give it terramycin
grease patties, and treat with Apistan strips, if this hasn't been done
already.  It is also a good idea to feed it a gallon of 1:1 sugar syrup with
Fumadil for nosema control.
 
5) Mistakes always happen, especially to beekeepers.  The key is to learn from
them.  Good luck.
 
Ted Fischer