# Queen caged since April



## crofter (May 5, 2011)

My guess is she started laying and the workers immediately started supercedure cells. Rather an amazing situation. I think someone has not been doing their homework!


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## Glass_apiary (Sep 14, 2021)

crofter said:


> My guess is she started laying and the workers immediately started supercedure cells.


If she’s laying then why am I seeing zero brood? Productivity has been low and there’s only about four frames with honey and pollen, so I don’t have a lot to look over. Any advice is appreciated.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

If the started cells are viable either a queen laid them or laying worker. If laying worker they will not develop. Were you not concerned that there was no brood all summer as must have been the case if the queen was unable to exit the introduction cage.


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

she did not keep the hive alive, it slowley reduced in size, had you not gone in, it would have been dead in the spring.
As it stands, now is the "winter bee " raising time, if they do not get winter bees built they will not make the winter.

BTW I check after 4-5 days and release any still cadged queens, just for this sort of delima.

GG


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## Glass_apiary (Sep 14, 2021)

crofter said:


> Were you not concerned that there was no brood all summer as must have been the case if the queen was unable to exit the introduction cage.


That’s my #1 question? Since my hive has stayed about the same size all summer I’m confused as to how she did it. I assumed she was laying on the inner frames where I couldn’t see. I considered opening the OH but local beeks said they’re hive production was low due to dearth so I let them do their thing bc I wasn’t running out of bees. Now that I’ve had a look inside I’m confused as to where they’ve been coming from.


Gray Goose said:


> she did not keep the hive alive, it slowley reduced in size, had you not gone in, it would have been dead in the spring.
> As it stands, now is the "winter bee " raising time, if they do not get winter bees built they will not make the winter.
> 
> BTW I check after 4-5 days and release any still cadged queens, just for this sort of delima.
> ...


Thank you! The hive still looks about the same size as it did almost 5 mos ago so I really thought she was laying. This will never happen again, if it had been a traditional hive I would’ve caught it on the first hive inspection.


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

couple options
a swarm came in
there was a second queen in the package who died
bees that do NOT raise brood live longer, that is how they get thru winter.

GG


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## lily69972 (1 mo ago)

Thanks for sharing your experience, it is very useful.


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