Now I'm confused

[Skyhook]

My wife commented today that there had been a huge amount of activity around my garden hive the other day. My first thought was 'I hope they haven't swarmed', but I was comforted by the thought that they have a young queen from AS earlier this year.

I opened up this afternoon- good news they still had plenty of room in the super, bad news there didn't seem to be a lot of bees. I went all through the BB. No sign of the queen, but I rarely see queens: but no eggs. There were some very young larvae on a few frames, but mostly empty space where brood had emerged, some being used for pollen. BUT- no queen cells.

What's going on? I last inspected about 10 days ago, so she was there and laying several days after that. If they have swarmed, why no cells? and if they haven't why no eggs?

Any insights gratefully received.


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[Tom Bick]

No great help and a different part of the country but I have looked into a few hives recently to see emerging bees and very little in the way of open brood and a reasonable spread of eggs Looks as though the queens went of lay for a short while and have just got going again.

 

[Skyhook]

Thanks Tom, that gives me some hope- any other insights?


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[user 6228]

Hypotheses... I don't know but here are some guesses.

Guess1 We have a had a strong flow now it's stopped and the weather has broken. The bees have paused their expansion because its survival trait to expand matching your food supply. How this done ? Maybe it's if the number of unemployed bees goes up then laying slows.
Guess2 Or it might an artefact of the relatively low number of brood cycles between the end of winter and now. This is a natural oscillation in brood production just made more extreme by the sudden transition from winter to spring to summer.
Seeing the same as Tom, we have had a pause here as well. But it appear to be restarting

 

[sandysman]

My wife commented today that there had been a huge amount of activity around my garden hive the other day. My first thought was 'I hope they haven't swarmed', but I was comforted by the thought that they have a young queen from AS earlier this year.

I opened up this afternoon- good news they still had plenty of room in the super, bad news there didn't seem to be a lot of bees. I went all through the BB. No sign of the queen, but I rarely see queens: but no eggs. There were some very young larvae on a few frames, but mostly empty space where brood had emerged, some being used for pollen. BUT- no queen cells.

What's going on? I last inspected about 10 days ago, so she was there and laying several days after that. If they have swarmed, why no cells? and if they haven't why no eggs?



Any insights gratefully received.


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Could you have missed a queen cell? It only takes one, I know, it happened to me!

 

[user 6228]

bad news there didn't seem to be a lot of bees. ...
Any insights gratefully received.

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You are obviously more experienced than us, but this eyeballing the number of bees can be wildly off. Perhaps its somethng to us registering the noise and movement more than the actual count.
We were taking supers off because of the stopping of the flow and thought to take two off thinking them poorly populated... after emptying one of bees by shaking and seeing we we had a good litre and half of bees we changed our minds and took off only one.

 

[Skyhook]

Could you have missed a queen cell? It only takes one, I know, it happened to me!

Conceivably, but I don't think so. I looked thoroughly, twice, and the brood frames were quite tidy so not a lot of the usual hiding places up the side bars.

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[Skyhook]

You are obviously more experienced than us, but this eyeballing the number of bees can be wildly off. Perhaps its somethng to us registering the noise and movement more than the actual count.

Not sure I am. It's possible I was just seeing them in a different level of activity, but flights appear reduced as well, though hard to allow for the weather.


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[Elaine]

Not sure I am. It's possible I was just seeing them in a different level of activity, but flights appear reduced as well, though hard to allow for the weather.


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Activity from ours seemed reduced too - sitting with a cup of coffee watching them it all seemed less purposeful! Just waiting for the heather to start properly, and hopefully it will be "all systems go" again! or may be it's just the reduction in hive numbers..........

 

[beeno]

Hi all,
First year of overwintering bees, and the activity level of spring build-up compared to now is amazing. However, they have lots of pollen stores and supers a plenty, so why kill yourself I can hear them thinking... Nothing more motivating than empty cupboards!