Went into a small hive the other day (10 frame deep) and was considering adding another box to them. There are a boat load of bees in the box. Not swarm mode numbers but another box time for sure. Then I noticed there is no capped brood, no eggs and no larvae in there. Lots of pollen stored though. But still plenty of room for a laying queen. What are y'all still thoughts? Obviously queenless, even though they were gentle. I have seen this hive packed with brood before. There are open (hatched) Queen cells in there as well. But they've been like that for days. Wouldn't an emergency queen be back from a mating flight by now?
Also......here's something that crossed my mind. I have several nucs with bees in them. One is small and I doubt they will build up before winter. It was a small swarm I captured a few days ago. They are Queen right though. Could I re-queen this larger queenless hive with this queen and her bees?
Quote from: Fishing-Nut on July 14, 2017, 07:45:37 PM
Went into a small hive the other day (10 frame deep) and was considering adding another box to them. There are a boat load of bees in the box. Not swarm mode numbers but another box time for sure. Then I noticed there is no capped brood, no eggs and no larvae in there. Lots of pollen stored though. But still plenty of room for a laying queen. What are y'all still thoughts? Obviously queenless, even though they were gentle. I have seen this hive packed with brood before. There are open (hatched) Queen cells in there as well. But they've been like that for days. Wouldn't an emergency queen be back from a mating flight by now?
A new queen could take as long as 11 days before she starts laying.
Jim
If you have a hive that can spare it, I would put a frame of ...EGGS... and larva in the queenless hive. In one week you will have either eggs or queen cells. Then you will know the status of the hive.
Assuming that queen cells were laid at the same time as the last of the brood, that means that the queen hatched as little as 5-6 days ago(probably a little longer). So it is possible that she was on a mating flight or just hasn't started laying yet. You can either wait a week and see if the queen is back and laying or do what iddee said(that would be the sure way to find out what's going on in your hive).
New laying queen could be as long as 28 +/- 5 days (if can not wait to see do the queen test id mentioned)
Thank y'all for the advice. Maybe I'll wait a few days and see what they do. This was a cutout that was doing real good so I don't want to loose them. How about the whole no honey thing? What's going on with that?
Is there a flow and are the bees robbing?
I look at the hives every day even if I don't plan to go into them and haven't noticed any kind of robbing activity going on. I have to make my rounds and check livestock twice a day and I go right by the bees to do so. Nothing seems out of place. They have a while bunch of pollen stored though.
One is no good without the other. I would say there is no flow and they are just screwing around collecting pollen.
Is it no honey or nectar or both? If they have nectar with no honey than I wouldn't worry much. If it is neither than I might consider feeding some if there is no flow.
It's neither one. No nectar either. Plenty of pollen though. I do have some drawn comb. Maybe I'll give it to them in a super and feed them.
Would doing a combine with a small (softball sized) swarm that has a laying queen work, or would it just cause problems if a mated queen returned to find another queen. Our flow is pretty much over here so I doubt this small swarm will build up before winter.
I would only add a queen to another hive if I knew for certain there is not one there already. You could end up with two dead or injured queens. If you add a frame with eggs you will know for sure within a few days if they need a queen or not. They will have queen cells started if they are queenless.
It's still early in you area. I would give your little swarm a chance. I had a swarm take up residence in an empty nuc last august. It almost made it through the winter. Just didn't have enough bees. Probably would have made it if it would have swarmed in early aug. instead of late aug.
As much as I hate the idea, feed the heck out of them and hope they overwinter.