Missing Queen

I have been unable to locate the marked queen for 2 weeks.  That said, the hive appears to be very healthy.  What do I need to do?

How are the bees behaving? Are they calm? Or are they pissed anytime you are within 20 feet of the hive? If they are calm, maybe the queen is better at hide and seek than you are.

They are acting quite normal.  The hive is very productive.  I will be out to check the bees in about an hour.  I suspect I just may have missed her, but I don't see how.

Oh yes, it is worth mentioning that many bees are carrying pollen.

I checked thoroughly once more. No marked queen.  But there is no signs of there having been a swarm.  The hive is more active than ever. There are no mites or other bugs in the hive.  My only idea is that the old queen was rejected.  If so, I have not identified the new one ...if there is a new one.

if they don't seem upset, there's probably a queen. could have been a swarm or supersedure. when you say signs of there having been a swarm, I assume you mean queen cells.

Do you have brood?
If you have not seen your queen in two weeks and suspect that she was lost, you should only see some spare capped cells and no larvae.

If you see larvae, the queen is somewhere.
If you have another hive you can of course do the test for a queen (can't remember the English term) where you add a frame with some new brood from another hive and see if they draw out a cell to make a new queen.

giving the hive a gentle knock with your knuckle and listening to the sound the colony makes is pretty reliable, too, and really easy. if there's no queen, they sound angry or distressed. with a queen, the just get louder for a moment, but sound perfectly fine.

Hi Tel,

No, I meant there was no absence of bees .....as if would be the case if the hive had swarmed.

John F Dean wrote:No, I meant there was no absence of bees .....as if would be the case if the hive had swarmed.

ah. I misread your message as saying that you had seen evidence of a swarm. whoops.

It can be surprisingly hard to tell if a colony has swarmed by casually observing bee numbers.

When I inspect I don't usually try to look for the queen herself - although I often do find her these days, as my eyes have got good at spotting her. Instead I look for "brood in all stages" BIAS. If you have seen fresh eggs, young larvae, older larvae and capped brood you know she has been laying continuously over the past 10 days or so. At that point you don't need to see her, and attempting to do so is little more than sightseeing.

Hi Tel,

I tried the knocking, there was no real increase in noise or activity. I think maybe  3 additional bees left the hive only to turn around and go back in.

John F Dean wrote:I tried the knocking, there was no real increase in noise or activity. I think maybe  3 additional bees left the hive only to turn around and go back in.

did you put your ear against the hive? I realize I forgot to mention that important step. I should also mention that this doesn't work well if the hive is made out of very thick material. I've got a few with full 2" walls that I can't hear any activity through regardless of what's going on inside.

without having been there, though, it sounds like they're probably queen-right (have a queen). without a queen, colonies often get real defensive and easily perturbed.

I know it's unpleasant to not know for sure, but I think your best bet at this point is just to wait and keep observing from outside the hive. foragers carrying pollen in is a good sign. a dramatic increase in the number of drones is a less good sign (though if it's just for an hour or so twice a day, that's just the daily drone exodus to their hangouts and return). activity that seems pretty normal for that hive is a good sign. increased defensiveness is less good.

opening the hive up and looking for brood and eggs is certainly an option and one that a lot of folks would recommend. that's more invasive than I'm generally interested in (and not without risk to a queen and brood), but it's a quicker and more certain way to know the hive's queen status if you don't yet recognize entrance behaviors. whatever option you choose, this is a good time to be observing entrance behavior and correlating it with what you eventually determine is going on. taking notes of your observations might help, though I'm personally not organized enough and/or too lazy for that.

The old queen is certainly gone, but I did identify a new one today.  Thanks to all for your advice.