no brood

[islayhawk]

Did first check yesterday. First hive fine, bias, plenty of stores and pollen. However hive 2 was different. Plenty of stores and pollen - but no queen and no eggs or brood in any form.I noticed over past two weeks that the bees from this colony were hanging about on the alighting board more than usual. There is no sign of physical defects on them or disease. If no queen I would have thought there would be a laying worker but no sign of eggs. I gave them a frame of eggs and young larvae to test for queenless. If they dont draw a qc what would be my best approach

 

[Poly Hive]

Visiting Islay next month, should I pack the veil?

PH

 

[Ian123]

Depends on how many bees left in that hive? and is it worth doing any thing with them.

 

[islayhawk]

Yeah still plenty bees had thought of combining. The problem I face by putting in the frame is that I only have sealed drone frames and by the time a new queen could be raised there might not be any fertile drones. So I had thought of combining - thoughts?

 

[Ian123]

Drones a plenty down here and swarms....lol if you consider theres no chance of getting a mating then combine imo. I would seperate combine with queen excluder just in case old gorl is still running around unless you are 100% certain

 

[Angularity]

Three of my colonies yesterday had masses of nectar (OSR in full flower) with no brood. Have I suddenly lost all my queens, or does this happen at this time of year? Haven't had OSR so close before.

 

[Millet]

I went through a colony yesterday with the same situation..it presumably went into winter with a clipped marked Queen..on inspection yesterday I found no brood and no marked Queen..I went through the hive a further two times and I eventualy found a small slender unmated Queen..the old Queen had been superseded late in the year and the virgin failed to get mated..she was splated and the colony was United to another hive...them small Queens take some spotting mind..

 

[masterBK]

I would expect to see a few more supersedure queens than usual this year as less colonies changed their queen by swarming last year. Also would expect more swarming this year for same reason.

 

[Murox]

Yeah still plenty bees had thought of combining. The problem I face by putting in the frame is that I only have sealed drone frames and by the time a new queen could be raised there might not be any fertile drones. So I had thought of combining - thoughts?

If your certain of no queen - combine and make a really strong hive - in a few weeks time you can decide how to make an increase.

 

[islayhawk]

If there had been a supercedure and I too had a small unmated Queen would I not expect to see small capped drone brood.

 

[Millet]

If there had been a supercedure and I too had a small unmated Queen would I not expect to see small capped drone brood.

That also confused me..i have had a drone laying Queen in the past but this small Queen of mine was laying nothing for some reason or other..I was lucky to spot her before the unite.