After a couple of weeks of constant rain, I was finally able to open my hive yesterday (I only have one). It seem the queen is missing. I could see new born bees, brood coming out, but only some capped brood, and a handfull of larvea. But NO eggs! I had a lot of capped brood last time I checked, and these combs are all empty now. It also looks like I have a queen cell. If it is a queen cell, will that take care of the problem (of getting a new queen) or will it be too late?
Can you post a pic of it. It's always good to have two hives because if one fails you cann allways get eggs from the other hive. ....schawee
I will try and get pics. It is raining again today :-x
Your queen may have just slowed down on the egg laying due to lack of available food coming in.
Quote from: VolunteerK9 on June 26, 2011, 04:28:05 PM
Your queen may have just slowed down on the egg laying due to lack of available food coming in.
I hope you are right! I did run out of food for a couple of days in the top hive feeder. I have added food, and the bees are working hard at bringing food in as well, so hopefully that will take care of it. I have not seen my queen yet, but I am new at this so it will probably take me a while...
Sorry, I missed the statement of the queen cell....if your hive was from a package, supercedure cells seem to be the norm. Is it a capped cell or just a cup? Also, check your food stores if you are feeding. If the broodnest is plugged up with syrup, your current queen may not have room to lay. So many variables in keeping of the bee :-D
If you're suffering from a lot of rain it could be that the bees aren't getting enough forage to rear brood, just enough to allow the adult bees to survive, in which case the queen would quit laying to conserve stores.
If you have plenty of stores then I would have to agree with VolunteerK9. It is more the norm, these days, to have a package queen superceded within a short time after hiving verses the rarity that it used to be. I believe this is from an overdose of treatments for various maladies. Get away from treating your bees, allow them to develop hygenic behavior and the queen supercedure percentage should return to a rarity instead of the norm.
Thanks for the replies! I will try and get a picture of what's going on, this weekend.
I found the queen :-D. I also found eggs, larvae in all stages, and capped brood.
Quote from: Brian D. Bray on June 28, 2011, 05:34:07 PM
If you're suffering from a lot of rain it could be that the bees aren't getting enough forage to rear brood, just enough to allow the adult bees to survive, in which case the queen would quit laying to conserve stores.
it seems you were right. I made sure they have plenty of syrup (since my feeder was leeking last week). Last week we actually had some decent weather as well.
I am hoping to add the second brood box next week! The weather is supposed to be good :)
Thanks for all your advice!!
:)