Problems?

[MarkW]

I did an inspection about a week and a half ago all looked well. Two deeps the upper was around 60 to 70 lbs of honey. The lower had brood larva, so I added a shallow honey super. Today Things looked slow, I did an inspection and no brood at all no larva no eggs. I did see a queen cell that had been open lots of bees and noticed what looked like more drones. I do have one more hive that is doing very well. Should I move one or two frames of brood the queen less hive? Should I order a queen? Or just see if the bees can take care of it

Thanks in advance for the replies  

MarkW

[Ruben]

Stick a frame of eggs in it and recheck it in 4 days to see if there is a queen cell on it but you probably have a virgin queen in the hive. If there is no queen cell in four days then you have a queen.

[Brian D. Bray]

Do not assume the hive is queenless just because you have an absence of of brood.  The hive might have swarmed or superceded and the new queen isn't to the egg laying stage of development yet.  During a dearth or drought a queen might stop laying for the same reasons she would going into winter--lack of nectar flow to stimulate brood production.
One sure way of check for a queen is to insert a frame of brood into the hive--if they start drawing supercedure cells they are queenless.  If they have a queen they will treat the brood frame as they would under normal conditions.

[Michael Bush]

As everyone has pointed out, it's doubtful they are queenless.  More likely they either swarmed, lost their queen, and already raised a new one, or superceded.  Either way you probably won't have eggs until 24 days after they lost the queen, or 14 days after the new queen emerges.  A frame of eggs and young larvae is always good insurance just in case they really DON'T have a queen.

[MarkW]

Thanks for the replies!!!!!

Ok Friday I put a frame of brood in the hive, still no eggs or brood. Should I check it in 3 or 4 days to see if the bee’s started a queen cell? Or do I wait a week? Today I just stood by the hive to see the activity it looked like more than Thursday. Bees still going and coming. I have never noticed that many drones flying out and back before, is that normal for drones to fly that much?

[Brian D. Bray]

>>is that normal for drones to fly that much?

Yes.  Drone flight in the afternoons along with the newbee orientation flights make the hive look very busy and productive even though most of the nectar gathering is done in the morning.  Pollen and water gathering is the main focus of afternoon activity; this is also more likely the queens will fly to mate--the reason for such drone activity.

[Michael Bush]

Here's the timing:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm

See the section on "If there is no brood there is no queen"
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfallacies.htm

[MarkW]

:?:  Ok last Friday August 4th I put one frame of brood in the hive. Yesterday August 8th I looked in the hive and no queen cell, brood has all hatched on both sides of frame. No eggs or larva yet. The bees seem busy and there seems to be a lot of bees in the hive (2 deeps) The top deep seems to be loosing some weight when I pick it up. There is some activity bees coming and going. Do I Just wait this out to see what happens? Or maybe add a second frame of brood?

[Finsky]

It seems very sure that hive has a queen. Otherwise it had queen cells in brood frame.

[Brian D. Bray]

>>brood has all hatched on both sides of frame.

When putting a frame of brood into a hive it is essential that the frame contain eggs.  Without eggs the bees can not produce a queen and you are just keeping the population up until the hive goes laying worker.  Put in another frame of brood that contains eggs and see what happens.

[MarkW]

Thanks Brian!!!

I will give that a try ASAP

Mark

[MarkW]

Yesterday evening I went out to put a frame of brood/eggs in this hive. I went to pull a frame from this hive 1st and thought I saw a few eggs (eyes are not so good). So I kept looking, went into the bottom deep and found some larva. It is spotty but it is there so the queen has started. The top deep is around 50lbs the bottom deep is very empty as far as honey goes but has some pollen in it. Should I feed now? Or just let things alone for a while? My other hive is still packing away honey and working like crazy so I believe that there is still a honey flow at this time.

Thanks so much!!!

MarkW
:D

[Brian D. Bray]

You still have at least a month for the bees to do their thing.  If, after labor day, your hive is still behind the curve on building stores I would begin feeding then.