Do you have a queenless colony?

Nearly every year I have had at least one queenless colony in mid to late season. Here are a few things that I have tried and succeeded at:

1) Borrowing a queen cell from another colony:

• Pull a frame with a well developed queen cell out of a different hive. 
• Tap off all the honeybees into their original hive.
• Place the frame with no bees into the queenless colony hive (center).
• Check back in 5-10 days to see if you find a new queen or evidence of a queen (eggs & larva).

2) Combine the queenless hive with a strong, healthy hive:

• Take both inner and outer lids off the hive with a queen.
• Place two to three sheets of newspaper over the top of the top box of the hive with a queen.
• Place several slices in the paper with a box knife.
• Place all boxes of the queenless hive on top of the hive with the queen.
• Replace both lids.
• Keep completing hive checks every 10 days.

This will allow the workers to become one family. The paper slows the process so there is less fighting while the strong colony accepts the queenless colony as siblings with the same skills and benefits. The more workers, the more resources are foraged and the more honey is produced. 

3) Order a replacement queen:

Kohnen & Sons if they still have them available and ship them one day air. This is expensive and may not work this late in the season.

https://www.koehnen.com/