I have a hive that seemed to be doing well. I was gone a month and rechecked the hive, at first I found no brood, no honey, no pollin, lethargic hive with many less bees, no queen and no queen chambers. I put in a frame of brood from a strong hive and hoped for the best. I went into it yesterday to see if any queen chambers were made - no, but I now know why, I found the queen. I checked around to see if I could replace her and the answer is out for the season. Is it to late to mush her and introduce a new frame of brood and then really feed them? Should I mush her and join it with another hive? Should I split hives and join it with a strong hive or might that give me two weak hives? Is the hive doomed? Keep in mind they have absolutely no stores. :cry:
Why don´t you feed?
fcserosa,
You hive is exhibiting typical dearth or drought behavior. At this juncture is best to feed to provide stores to winter over and induce a brood build up sufficient to winter over.
If this is the only hive in your yard that has this problem I would mark it for queen replacement. Now would be a good time to do that if you know of a source of queens.
Lots of people, including me, still have queens for sale.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueens.htm