Queenless???

johnwm73 · March 19, 2011, 02:37:32 PM

I did a check of my 2 hives a couple weeks ago. Both had bees bringing in pollen and had brood. A frame on one and and frame and a half on the other. Today I checked and the hive that had a frame of brood has very little now but about 20 or so drone cells. Should I be worried about this hive or just give it time? The bees were bringing in lots of pollen. And I am feeding pollen patties and 1:1 syrup.

Kathyp · March 19, 2011, 02:46:00 PM

is your only brood drone? if you have 20 or so and the rest is worker brood, i would not be worried. if all your brood is drone, you might be in trouble. did you verify that you had a queen?

johnwm73 · March 19, 2011, 03:33:19 PM

I search this time for a queen and didn't see her. This hive was weak going into winter. So I am hoping it is just slow laying like last year. I didn't see any queen cells either. Should I wait a week and see how things go? Maybe then there will be brood? I may be worrying too early and should give it a week. What do you think?

Kathyp · March 19, 2011, 03:41:06 PM

was all the brood drone brood? define weak. how many frames of bees are there? did you see any eggs or very young larvae? are there more bees now than a couple of weeks ago?

johnwm73 · March 19, 2011, 03:54:19 PM

When I was working the hive a couple weeks ago it was light. It is heavier now. If there was any brood besides drone it was minimal. Maybe 10 or so on a frame. But the bees aren't putting honey in the empty cells. They are around them though. Looks like they are saving for brood. And except for the outer 4 frames the inner 6 had bees covering each side. It is stronger now than when it went into winter.

Kathyp · March 19, 2011, 04:01:57 PM

i think my call would be to look again in a few days and see how much brood you have. if you don't see new brood or can't find your queen, you may need to consider combining the hive with another. if you have mostly drone brood, you may need to consider requeening.
feed for the week and see what happens. having drones is good. having more drone brood than worker is not. also watch for them to make swarm cells.

what's your weather like?

next time you go in, take pictures if you are unsure about anything. it's easier for us to see and answer your questions ;)

johnwm73 · March 19, 2011, 07:08:10 PM

Thanks I will take pictures in a week. It has been in the 70's during the day and upper 40's and lower 50's at night for about a couple weeks. I am guessing that given a week or two knowing I saw brood a couple weeks ago that she will start laying because of all the pollen coming in. Also I put in a pollen patty about 3 weeks ago so that may be why I am seeing brood a couple weeks ago and not now because of the lag between the patty and natural pollen coming in. I put a patty on today so maybe that will help.

Brian D. Bray · March 20, 2011, 02:04:10 AM

If you've got brood you had a queen until recently, if you saw eggs, then you have a queen or had one within the last 3 days.

I'll bet that alot of those frames were full of eggs and in three days they become larvae, which is much easier to see. Go back in and take a look, I'll bet you'll see end bar to end bar of white larvae in those frames.

As soon as any queen begins to lay she will lay about 20% of the total eggs she lays as drone eggs. It takes drones at least a week longer in incubation to develop from egg to adult over than of a queen. It then takes them another 3 wees (+/-) to mature to mating status. So what to see seems normal to me for a hive just coming out of winter.

If the brood status hasn't changed in the next few weeks then requeen or combine.