Frame Guide › Queen problems
Can't Find the Queen: what it looks like on the frame
You went through every frame twice and never saw the queen.
One egg standing upright in the bottom of each cell, in a tight patch, surrounded by solid capped brood. An egg hatches in three days, so eggs like these prove a laying queen walked this comb within the last three. You don't need to see her — you need to see her work.
Close up — the hive is queenright
Eggs are the proof. Buying a queen for a queenright hive wastes the money and gets the new queen killed, and hunting frame after frame just chills brood and stresses the colony. Even experienced beekeepers miss the queen most visits.
Easy to mistake for
- Laying WorkerA colony that's been loud and 'roary' for weeks. No calm hum.
- Swarm CellsEarly May · booming population, bees boiling out the front.
Could you spot this with the lid off?
Read the Frame deals you 8 random frames. Say what you see, say what you'd do, and find out why. It's free and runs on your phone.
Drill queen problems → Mixed round (all 32 frames) →More queen problems
- Healthy Brood PatternJune · a strong colony, bees calm and covering the comb.
- Laying WorkerA colony that's been loud and 'roary' for weeks. No calm hum.
- Swarm CellsEarly May · booming population, bees boiling out the front.
- Supersedure CellsNothing dramatic. The pattern has just gotten patchy lately.
- Drone-Laying QueenQueen is present, but the brood looks bumpy and raised all over.
- Emergency Queen CellsYou rolled the queen ten days ago. This is the same colony now.
- New Queen Laying Double EggsThe queen you introduced started laying five days ago.
- Waiting on a Virgin QueenThis colony swarmed 16 days ago. No eggs, no larvae anywhere.
- Empty Queen CupsMid-April · the colony is building fast. Along the bottom bars you find these.
These frames are drawn to teach the pattern, and real frames vary. From The Alleman Apiary in Middletown, PA.