WHEN THE Queen Abdicates

Without a queen to rule, your hive can't survive.

- AMY GRISAK

One of the worst feelings during a hive check is when the queen is nowhere to be found, nor are there new eggs at the bottom of uncapped comb. Life in the colony suddenly goes from an efficiently run community to a potentially perilous situation.

In nearly three decades of keeping bees in Montana, my husband and I have seen a lot of queens die. Some coups were planned. But more often, the need for a new queen arose because either something unexpected happened to her, or the colony decided they needed a new monarch.

Besides the desire to save the hive, our challenge is always how to minimize any downtime during our short summer season. Losing a queen at the wrong time might mean no honey harvest from that hive or slim odds for the colony’s survival heading into the winter. But regardless of when it happens, it’s always good to know the best way to handle a queenless situation.

 CREATION OF THE QUEEN

For eons prior to domestication, honeybees successfully managed queen succession. While we still don’t completely understand the decision-making process of a honeybee colony, the hive often knows when a queen is failing. In this case, the workers prepare for succession.

Queen cups, the beefier base of queen cells, are one indication, although their presence doesn’t necessarily mean the workers intend to raise a new queen, but it’s something to watch. On the other hand, if the elongated and somewhat peanut-shaped queen cells are present, something is amiss and the existing queen is on deck for succession, or a swarm is on the horizon.