# Help queen quit laying???



## homemaid (Apr 26, 2011)

WE had a very nice chocolate colored new queen. She was laying a beautiful pattern in a nuc box. When we moved her to a full hive she just flat out quit laying. What would cause this? We have moved her back into a nuc box to see what happens and have a new queen coming on Friday for the hive. Has anyone ever had this happen to them? She is a nice big queen a good inch long with a nice big abdomen but lays nothing.. ???


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

My queens have cut back to nearly nothing since there is no nectar coming in. If you are in the deep south and your nectar sources are drying up this may be the reason. 

I'm about to start feeding mine through the dearth. Thank goodness the dearth isn't going to be for very long this year thanks to the rain.


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## homemaid (Apr 26, 2011)

I am in the Thumb of Michigan we still have lots of pollen coming in on the bees, there is still lots of nectar in the other hives. There were also nectar in this hive, She just quit laying.


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Possibly she got injured during the move. Also, does she have room to lay? Is there empty comb for her to lay in? If it's been a week and she has comb to lay in and is still not laying I'd seriously consider requeening.

Something I've run across several times in my beginning students hives this year is the queen ends up being limited to a couple of frames because the bees stored honey in a frame in the middle of the brood nest. The queen will look at the frame of honey as a barrier and will usually not cross over it to lay on the other side of it. So, even if you have empty comb available....make sure there is not a honey or pollen barrier limiting your queen. Honey around the edges of broom comb is normal but honey in the middle of the comb becomes a barrier. Always move 'storage' combs out to the edge of the box or up into the upper box towards the edge. I swear my bees are trying to corner the market on pollen this year and I am constantly having to move frames of it.


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## k9 (Feb 6, 2008)

I must confess that i never quite understood the "gueen goes up" and the honey super goes on the top situation..... maybe i need to be rotating hive bodies more ofter than i am? In a natural hive how do they deal with it?


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

k9 said:


> I must confess that i never quite understood the "gueen goes up" and the honey super goes on the top situation..... maybe i need to be rotating hive bodies more ofter than i am? In a natural hive how do they deal with it?


In a natural hive they probably just swarm. Bees seem to be really fond of doing that. I worked a hive yesterday that I had to swap the hive bodies on.


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## homemaid (Apr 26, 2011)

she has about 15 frames of drawn comb empty to be laying in but is doing nothing. Our new queen should be here tomorrow. WE took her out of the hive and she is back into a nuc box but I think she will be in some alcohol for swarm lure. Thank you for your answers. It is a shame because she is such a beautiful queen.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I had one several years ago that just plain took a two week vacation. I never saw her during an inspection nor eggs so installed a new queen. The workers were not releasing her from her cage I released her into a frame cage and they workers were just ignoring her. Did another inspection of the whole hive and seen the old queen. As soon as I moved the new queen to another box she then took off laying.

 Al


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## homemaid (Apr 26, 2011)

We did add a new queen into the hive a week ago and the old queen into a nuc box with some brood honey and pollen. We left for vacation and just returned home so tomorrow we will be checking on them both to see what is going on in both of the boxes. Hubby said he did see a bee with pollen going into the nuc box with the old queen in. Goofy Bees...


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## GeoCitizen (Feb 24, 2014)

homemaid said:


> We have moved her back into a nuc box to see what happens and have a new queen coming on Friday for the hive.


Did you introduce her to your her new home or did you just through her in? If you just tossed her in, you're lucky the colony didn't kill her which is what happens sometimes. Two possible reasons for your queen to has stopped producing...

1.) New home so she's redecorating. I'm partially joking. It may take a week or so for her to feel the love and start producing.

2.) Where I live in Northern Ohio we are in the dearth, so the nectar flow is mostly gone and the queen is taking a vacation. Most queens will stop or greatly slow production to match the food quantity coming in.

I wouldn't have put her back in the nuc. I once read the greatest threat to the hive is the beekeeper! I tend to agree. I usually get in trouble when I try to do the thinking for the bees. They seem to be much smarter than I and the vast majority of the times when left alone they figure it and get back to producing honey despite my helpfulness.


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## homemaid (Apr 26, 2011)

We did introduce her to the hive in a queen cage with a candy plug. Now that Chocolate queen that we put back into a nuc box with has started laying a bit. She has a brood pattern solid about the size of a tea cup plate. The new queen in the other hive was released from her queen cage via the candy plug and has started laying as well. We are going to watch the Chocolate queen for another week to see if she picks up production.


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## homemaid (Apr 26, 2011)

We checked on the chocolate queen and she is laying like crazy now. She must not have liked the open space in the regular brood chamber or something. She is going like gangbusters now. So is the new queen we put in the other hive. Today we are moving the chocolate queen into a full hive body today since the 5 frames are full. She will get a brand new box to call home.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

In my part of Michigan there was a dry spell middle July to second week in August. Even the good queens shut down as they were not getting much in the way of nectar to make honey out of. Now that we got rain again mid August they are back to laying and the bees are again in the flowers we don't water.

I'm still going to put the feeders on next week.

 Al


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