# Queen stopped laying



## tech.35058 (Jul 29, 2013)

I have no idea as to why she stopped laying, and I am sort of surprised that the bees did not replace her already. I would suggest you purchase another mated queen, split the hive, with the new queen in one & your smurf in the other. If smurf doesnt begin laying again, remove her & combine back together. ( this is what I expect to happen). or just move the smurf out on a couple of frames in a nuc, & intro the new queen. Good Luck ... CE


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## Skunked (Jan 15, 2015)

Thanks for the reply, I didn't see any queen cells on any of the frames, could weather play a role in this? It's been super hot and we haven't had much rain at all. I do have an entrance feeder with water for them though that they are taking from.


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

the chemicles in the paint damaged her most likely. I am astonished she survived, and did not suffocate. Replace her!


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## Deeohgee (Jun 28, 2015)

Not so fast. I had this happen recently to a queen. She laid eggs like none other I had seen. the numbers of bees in the hive grew quickly. Then I noticed the numbers were getting smaller, or so I thought. I looked in and found she was not laying. I call upon some experienced people to look at the hive. The workers were packing the cells with honey and she was not laying. 
I found that the amount of pollen that was coming in was not sufficient to stimulate her to lay more eggs.
I began feeding the hive, added another box, and added pollen. And she began laying again.
Check to see how much honey is being packed into the hive versus the amount of bee bread. That will help you make your decision. Is the area in a flow? If not, she may simply went into a conservation mode.


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## AL from Georgia (Jul 14, 2014)

I am in West Georgia, and most of my queens have slowed way down on laying. In my limited experience, hot weather and a dearth seem to make the queens slow down laying. Right now I am seeing most of my queens only have about a half frame of eggs on each inspection (every two weeks or so). I would locate the brood area and make double sure there are not some eggs. Laying here usually picks back up in the early fall, or if I feed the hive.


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## Skunked (Jan 15, 2015)

Well I went out to double check that there were no eggs that I could have overlooked and catch my non laying smurf queen, and lo and behold what do I find? 4 queen cups.

I didn't notice them yesterday because the frames were covered with bees and I don't have the trained eyes to spot them yet... I figure I'll let nature take its course and let the hive replace their queen. I swapped a frame of capped brood with a nice frame of eggs and young larvae with my other hive so they could have a nice selection for the queen cells. I feel bad for the old girl, she's sitting on the back porch in a queen clip waiting for the chopping block


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## frustrateddrone (Jan 31, 2015)

Bees will correct what is lacking if we let them. Amazing how that works:applause:


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## Deeohgee (Jun 28, 2015)

Just because she is not laying, and you found queen cells, doesn't mean she is depleted or about to be superseded. It is common to find a queen cell in a hive and yet they do not supersede the queen, it is like a precautionary in case of situation sometimes.


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## HoneyHabitat (Jul 5, 2015)

I had a similar problem i found two queen cells in my hive and the queen was present and laying. Two weeks later the queen cell hatched one queen was found she looked like it was the older queen as she was moving sluggish. To my surprise there was no eggs, larva and capped brood. I inspected the hive today there was a queen running around briskly and a constant flow of pollen from foragers seen at the entrance as well as stored in the hive, however no egg and no brood and it was been four weeks since the first queen cell was capped. Assuming it was a young queen does the flow of pollen suggests she has been mated and ready to lay.


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

Deeohgee said:


> Just because she is not laying, and you found queen cells, doesn't mean she is depleted or about to be superseded. It is common to find a queen cell in a hive and yet they do not supersede the queen, it is like a precautionary in case of situation sometimes.


 WHAT! If they make a cell the queen is done for! Do you know the difference between a cell and a cup? Because I think that is what you are referring to.


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## Deeohgee (Jun 28, 2015)

Tenbears said:


> WHAT! If they make a cell the queen is done for! Do you know the difference between a cell and a cup? Because I think that is what you are referring to.


You are correct, as to what I meant to say. TY for correcting me in my error.


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## Skunked (Jan 15, 2015)

Yes, I too said queen cups in my previous post, but there was a cell in there that there a group of bees vigorously attending. Sorry for any confusion!


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

Skunked, Do you see signs that there are eggs or larvae in the cups/cells? I often see bees hovering around cups that never develop into anything. Queen cups do not necessarily mean supercedure or swarming is at hand. 

I am no expert in chemical toxicity in honey bees but I don't believe that your paint job had any role at all in the queen taking a hiatus from laying. I would assume that chemical poisoning in a queen that was a "laying machine" for a month or so would manifest itself over a period of time rather than turning off the egg-laying switch without warning.

You found lots of open brood, which means your smurfette was laying in the last last week or so. I think you rushed to judgement here by assuming she was failing and removing her from the hive. There are lots of reasons why queens stop/slow down laying during the course of a year. It's too late for your queen but I think it was a big mistake to remove/kill her before knowing for sure what was going on and that the hive will be successful in rearing a new queen.

Wayne


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

Received a PM from Skunked. I'm afraid I thought the paint mishap was much earlier and the queen was laying well until a few days ago. Based on the dates in the PM, she did stop shortly after the time she was smurfed, laying perhaps a few more days. 

I'm surprised that the workers didn't start supercedure cells around newly hatched larvae as soon as they realized that there was a problem with the queen. 
Perhaps they didn't mind the blue and didn't see the pause in laying as something to be concerned with.

Wayne


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## Skunked (Jan 15, 2015)

Update--

Checked the frame that I added and the other frames that had cups and found 5 capped queen cells, looks like they're well on their way.


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## Skunked (Jan 15, 2015)

Update --

Inspected the hive today, found a large queen, eggs and larvae. Very neat to see how a queen can be replaced in about 25 days


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## tommyt (Aug 7, 2010)

Be sure and Mark her..........


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