A queenless colony
Updated
How you know
No eggs. That is the whole test and it is faster and more reliable than hunting for the queen. Eggs are at most three days old, so their absence means no laying queen for at least that long.
Alongside that: no young larvae, a brood nest emptying from the middle outward, and often a noticeably louder, more irritable colony.
Why it happens
- She swarmed and the replacement failed to mate or was lost on a mating flight.
- She was killed, sometimes by the beekeeper during an inspection.
- She failed with age and the colony did not supersede in time.
- The colony superseded and you are looking at the gap, which resolves itself.
That last one matters. A colony raising its own replacement needs about a month, and opening it repeatedly to check is how that fails. The reason is on making splits.
The roar
Experienced beekeepers hear queenlessness before they see it. A queenright colony has a settled hum; a queenless one has a higher, rougher note that people describe as a roar. It is not diagnostic on its own and it is a useful prompt to look for eggs.
What to do
The fastest fix is a mated queen, introduced in a cage so the colony accepts her over several days. It turns a month into a few days and is usually worth the money.
The cheapest fix is a frame of eggs and young larvae from another colony, which lets them raise their own. That is a month, and it only works if they have not gone too far.
Laying workers
Leave a colony queenless long enough and workers begin laying. Because they are unmated, every egg is a drone, and you see multiple eggs per cell and domed cappings across worker comb.
At that point the colony will usually reject an introduced queen, and combining or shaking out is the realistic option. This is why queenlessness is worth catching early rather than watching.