Beekeepers Blog

By: Blake Shook It goes without saying, there’s never a good time to be queenless - but late fall or winter is the worst time! Suppliers are no longer offering queens and let’s face it – drones are all but...

There are a variety of ways to tell if your hive has lost its queen, and at some point, each hive will eventually lose its queen. At times, they requeen themselves and we never know it, (which isn’t ideal) and...

First, verify they are actually queenless. Depending on what part of the country you are from, queens either completely stop laying in the fall or at least dramatically reduce laying. If you are in an area that typically remains above...

Drone layers are extremely annoying. Not only are they a waste of a good hive, but they are very difficult to fix. Right off the bat, I want to communicate that even with hard work, and trying multiple methods, I’ve...

First, does your hive have eggs or larva but no capped brood? If that’s the case, the hive amost likely has a newly installed, or reared queen, and the new queen is just getting started laying. If your hive has...

Also read: Queen Cells vs Queen Cups  If you read most beekeeping books, they explain that swarm cells (queens being raised in preparation for half the bees & the old queen to swarm away) and supersedure cells (queens being raised...

Also read: Swarm cells vs supersedure cells A queen cell is simply a cell in which a queen is actively being raised. A queen cup, or emergency queen cup as they are often called, is an empty queen cup that...

First, make sure you are able to spot eggs and larva. See “Tips for spotting eggs & larva”. If you are confident there are no eggs, larva, or capped brood, then you almost certainly have a queenless hive. The most...