No capped brood

drbryanj · May 24, 2007, 07:41:26 PM

I started my hive the first weekend in May with a four frame nuc. I gave them two additional drawn frames and four frames of undrawn small cell foundation. I went into the hive today and found almost no capped brood. I looked for the queen and did not find her. ( I am not the best at finding queens in the hive.) There is a small amount of capped honey at the edges of the frames. There also seem to be alot of drones. Did I loose my queen? What do I do now? Help!

RiceLake · May 24, 2007, 07:56:27 PM

Did you see any larvae or eggs? in the bottoms of the cells - usually in the center of the frames

drbryanj · May 24, 2007, 07:59:01 PM

I didn't see any eggs. Looked like mostly uncapped nectar.

Brian D. Bray · May 24, 2007, 11:59:19 PM

Are you honey bound? If the bees have filled the comb with nectar the queen doesn't have any place to lay eggs. Move the foundation frames to the center of the hive and force the bees to draw comb. If you still have a queen you should see evidence of her laying even before the comb is fully drawn.

drbryanj · May 25, 2007, 07:18:58 AM

Thanks, I will try that today. Should I add a second hive body?

Michael Bush · May 25, 2007, 11:06:29 AM

If you have another hive, I'd give them a frame of eggs and open brood and see what happens next. They may have superseded a failing queen or made an emergency queen and there may be a virgin, or they may be queenless.

drbryanj · May 25, 2007, 11:19:26 AM

I only have the one hive, so I don't have another frame to give them. I am trying to get another beekeeper from the area to come look at my hive this weekend. I am thinking of ordering a queen, but will the hive accept a new queen?

Michael Bush · May 25, 2007, 07:34:27 PM

>but will the hive accept a new queen?

Not if there's a virgin in there already.

Brian D. Bray · May 25, 2007, 10:30:36 PM

When you suspect a queenless hive it is best to try several things before leaping off the cliff and buying a new queen.
Putting a frame of brood and eggs in the hive will keep a hive from going laying worker and the bees response to the brood will tell you if they have a queen. In the meantime it boosts the population for getting you past the termporary drought of brood that a virgin queen gives a hive.

If you only have the 1 hive try contacting your local beekeepers association and seeing if you can buy a frame or 2 of brood from one of the members.

drbryanj · May 29, 2007, 06:35:43 PM

First I want to thank everyone for their suggestions.

Now for a report of what has happened. Last week when I looked at the hive, I saw no brood, no eggs, no queen cells. I thought the hive was in real trouble. On Saturday I inspected the hive again. While looking at the girls I saw what I thought was a queen, but not the marked queen I had installed with the nuc. She was being ignored by the other bees, so I wasn't sure if she was really the queen. Again, I didn't see any brood or eggs. I moved the outside 4 frames that had not be worked at all to the center and closed the hive.

On Monday, a local beekeeper with more experience than me came and we inspected the hive again. The 4 frames I moved to the center were completely drawn and mostly filled with uncapped honey (in just two days, amazing.) We didn't find the queen, but we were able to see eggs in many cells. The eggs were single and in the bottom center of each cell. The bees were very calm when we were in the hive.

When talking with other beekeepers, they said the reason the queen was unattended when I saw her on Saturday, was that she was still a virgin queen.

I am just astaunded with how much work these girls can do in such little time.

Bryan

Michael Bush · May 30, 2007, 07:44:53 AM

>When talking with other beekeepers, they said the reason the queen was unattended when I saw her on Saturday, was that she was still a virgin queen.

Exactly.