Queen Failures

Due to the really poor weather of late, I am having to take drastic action on some colonies where virgin queens have hatched but failed to get mated. It hurts me to say that these queens have had to be culled because they were drone laying and frames of eggs have been put into these hives from other healthy colonies in the hope of raising a new queen. However bearing in mind that the season is on the wane and assuming a new queen is raised and gets mated it will be mid August before she gets into lay and that means that colony numbers may be very low as autumn and winter approach! This is the worst season I have known with these extra stresses in addition to problems the bees already face.