So here's a question: is (cold climate) winter queen loss survivable?

I helped a neighbour clean out and analyze a dead-out a few weeks ago
(what a sad thing).  The analysis was fairly straightforward because
I knew that the hive in question went into winter too weak (varroa
treatment applied too late, hive was heavily robbed in late summer)
and with excessive humidity problems (insufficient ventilation,
fall feeding performed too late so syrup stored but not evaporated
or capped), so I already knew its chances were slim.

(And yes, I had repeatedly suggested to this beekeeper to take
action sooner.  I think he has learned his lesson.  He felt really
bad about the loss of the bees.)

Anyway, there was evidence of starvation (butts out) in the presence
of food nearby (still liquid and uncapped), there was a huge pile
of dead bees on the floor, the dead bees we saw looked healthy
(no visible mites, wings shaped correctly), the dead bees that were
still on the frames were in small scattered groups as opposed to a
single cluster, there was presence of mold in the corners suggesting
excessive humidity, there were a few spots that were probably bee
droppings but no evidence of widespread diarrhea, there was no brood
(well, aside from the occasional isolated cell where a larva had
probably starved or frozen), but, here's where it gets interesting
to me, I observed many (at least a dozen) supersedure cells started
but not finished - they were kind of round, but not yet elongated.

I assume that the queen died while there were eggs present, and
the remaining workers tried to replace her, but the cluster may
have been too small to survive the cold, and died out before they
were able to raise a new queen.

If the hive hadn't had all these problems but for some reason the
queen had died during the winter, and a new queen had been raised
but could not go on a mating flight for several weeks or months
because of the weather, would she simply become a drone layer and
would the colony die out when the oldest workers reached their end
of life some time in the late spring?  Or would the virgin queen
finally fly out and mate once the weather warmed up?

Just curious; there's so much experience on this list that I suspect
that at least some of you have encountered this situation.



Anne.
-- 
Ms. Anne Bennett, as a private citizen:  [log in to unmask]
Also reachable more officially at work:  [log in to unmask]

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