With the temps in the 60s yesterday, I did my late winter inspection to see how each hive had come through the winter and to rotate boxes.
Curious thing.............I could not find any brood in ANY of my six hives. I didn't tear down all brood boxes but in at least three, I found plenty of bees, pollen, bee bread, and honey but no larvae. Perhaps the nest is small this time of year and I just didn't get into it.
Do you think they were REALLY queenless?
Surely not 6 out of 6.
One of my hives has one frame with a softball size brood area on each side. If you didn't check all frames, you likely just missed it.
Thanks!
When I inspected the first hive and found no larva, I was planning on taking a frame with eggs from one of the other hives and putting it into the first. When I didn't find eggs in the others (at least what I could see) I decided to take a wait and see approach. With the warm weather yesterday, all hives were really active so I didn't want to cause a problem by making them raise another queen.
We'll see what happens!