I last inspected my hive on the 2nd of december 2016, in that inspection there were eggs, uncapped and capped brood, everything was normal.
My next inspection was on the 26th of december 2016 in that inspection a saw capped and uncapped brood but no eggs. The presence of Larva and capped brood in this inspection indicates that the queen stoped laying 5-7 days before the inspection so it is not possible that i accidentally killed her during my inspection 24 days before.
-I searched over every frame and there where no queen cells so they are not trying to make a new queen.
-The bees were not making a louder "buzz" then usual which is what a lot of beekeepers say happens when they are queen less.
-The bees were not trying to sting me more than often during the inspection, in fact i can sit a metre (3 feet) away from the hive and they wouldn't care less.
The hive is very young, they came from a swarm about 15 weeks ago and i dont feed because it is currently summer in Australia and there are heeps of flowers around. But we have had a week of stormy cloudy weather and the honey stores in the hive have been depleted, is there a chance that because the amount of honey in the hive has decreased dramatically that the queen has stoped laying and as i feed them and the amount of food stores increase that the queen will start laying again?
Jack,
That is exactly what it sounds like, no food coming in so the queen stopped laying eggs. If the queen died, there should have bees emergency queen cells since you do have wet larvae. Has the weather stopped the bees from flying?
Jim
Jack,
One of my hives this year had a runner Queen. Inspecting all hives about every 3 weeks i didn't see her till November. But I knew she was there.
Jack,
I think you have the right idea as to what is happening. If a queen sees no need for raising brood, she will not really stop, but slow her laying greatly. Also sometimes if there is no food coming in the workers will caniyballize the eggs and brood that are present.
Yeah, sometimes they'll surprise you. Like the others, I've went in some hives several times and couldn't find a queen. Then one day there she is. One of my recent experiences in this was with a nuc that had only two frames - and they weren't all the way filled out.
Update profile with location :wink:
Quote from: sc-bee on December 30, 2016, 11:08:07 PM
Update profile with location :wink:
Maclesan
Fascinating remark about workers canabilising larvae and eggs. Finding queens is the bane of my life. Having similar probs here at Warwick Qld. Where it is hot and dry at the moment. Hives are in a holding pattern. Heavy swarming in spring.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Thanks everyone for the help i really appreciate it, it stoped me from panicking so thanks heeps😀