Located in Northern Illinois using Top Bar Hives, but the management of the hives is the same.
I have two hives, my father has one. The owners of the area where he was keeping his (200yds away from my father's property) just told that they were receiving complaints from neighbors, so he had to move the hive. I took it and placed it on my property (70 miles away), until he can find a place close to him.
I moved it last Wednesday night.
I opened up the hive on Saturday morning and checked each comb. No brood at all!!! No eggs, no cappings (except a bit of honey).
There are about 1000-2000 bees, but no more.
I ordered a Queen, and I plan on moving 2-4 comb of brood from my hives (they are strong) into his hive. But is it too late? Did I do the right thing?
i think that is all you can do. then watch and see what happens. since you have ordered a queen, move older brood to the hive to keep numbers up. if you move eggs and very young larvae, they will attempt to make a queen. better that they accept the one you bought right off the bat. no queen confusion :-).
Well...another possible rookie mistake.
My wife wanted to see the empty comb too. While we were looking at each frame (bar of a top bar hive), we found the queen.
I didn't look for her the first time. I was looking for signs that she was there. And when I saw every cell was open (not covered), no brood and no eggs, i assumed she wasn't there. This is a hive started last April.
So, we ordered a Queen, but now that we found the Queen (who may not be laying???), should we still replace her? Not sure if the original swarmed. If they swarmed, would all of the cells be empty?
If only a little bit of honey, perhaps the queen is good but she cut back on egg laying due to a dearth. Just a thought. Perhaps some feeding might get her moving. Since you have a queen on the way though, maybe just replace the old one anyhow. Sometimes it's not worth the effort to try to revitalize a possible crap queen. The season is late. You will want to get this hive going so they are built up enough for winter. I would still consider some feeding.
Replaced the Queen yesterday and had a chance to inspect all of the comb.
There was honey is a lot of the brood comb (again....no brood or eggs). I wonder if they became honey bound and the old queen left and I had a new queen (that I just killed).
If it takes 21-28 days for bees to emerge from their cell, that would mean that the queen hasn't been laying that long. Is it typical that the period is this long between the old queen stop laying, and the new queen start laying? Just strange to see no brood at all.
If they swarmed, it is not strange at all to not have any brood or eggs. The old queen stops laying a few days before swarming. Also, after the swarm leaves there may be a few days before the new queen emerges, then another couple days before she can fly, yet more time for mating, and several days after mating before she starts laying. Gven all that, you should expect a broodless period after a hive swarms.
we all do it! there is nothing wrong with what you did. you have lots of options as you learn and feel more comfortable experimenting.
next time you think you have a queenless hive, add a frame of eggs and see what happens before you order a queen. it's the easiest way to figure out what is going on. if they make queen cells, they probably have no queen. if they don't, they probably have one......unless you have laying workers, but thats a whole 'nother can of worms! and, if they make queen cells, you can save yourself the money and let them raise their own, or you can stick extra queen cells in nucs....
it's also good to have some extra drawn comb and equipment around so that you can make nucs, splits, etc. when you find yourself in the same fix again....and you will :-)