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  Monday, July 18 2022
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I went into my hive yesterday and see I no longer have a queen or any brood, is it too late to requeen at this point?
It likely swarmed on you. Determine how many bees you have left and try to remember the last time you saw eggs and larva. 21 days from last egg laid and you are broodless.

You need to figure out if the virgin queen came back or if it's so late she likely didn't. The problem with requeening in this situation is they probably already have one. If you're ok with potentially wasting the travel and money on a queen then get one. Otherwise I'd wait another week to see if the queen they raised survived the mating flights and is laying.

The previous queen likely swarmed when the queen cells were capped. That leaves a week for virgins to emerge. A week for them to sexually mature. A week for them to mate and have that genetic material move to the ovaducts. Meaning three weeks is the minimum time you'd see the new queen start laying. You'd be without brood. Bees sometimes don't fit our timetables and take longer due to weather or what have you. If you don't see eggs in one more week you should requeen assuming there are enough bees left in hive to viably get her laying full steam to make enough nurse bees for winter.
1 year ago
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#2876
Thank you for the information. This is very helpful.
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