Now What - New Queen?

[mgmoore7]

On one of my hives that I got about 7 weeks ago, it is doing fairly well but I have not yet noticed a good pattern.  Very spotty. 

Today, I saw only a few larger larve and some capped brood but not much and it was spotty too.  Also lots of honey in the brood box, but still plenty of places for the queen to lay.

I have been wondering the last couple of weeks if I should replace her and figured that likely after today if I still saw a spotty pattern, I would think hard about replacing..

My other two hives, one that is fairly strong and the other that is out of a nuc about 4 weeks ago, are both building comp and making honey and laying eggs.  So, while we are not in a flow, they are definately making honey.  A flow is being planned for in Sept.

[mgmoore7]

I should add, that I did not notice any queen cells. 

[Kathyp]

you'll get other opinions, but mine is that 7 weeks is not very long at this time of the year.  do you have a good flow?  even in Florida, you must have a slowdown of laying as you go toward winter?

with luck, you'll get some Floridians to help you out a bit.  if it were me, where i live, i do not think i'd replace until spring.

[pdmattox]

Fall is a good time to requeen here so you have a fresh queen start of spring. the spoty pattern could be a shortage of food this time of year also.

[mgmoore7]

should I feed some to see if that stimulates her to get moving?  If she does not, I don't think I will have many bees by flow time in mid sept. 

[TwT]

sometimes, when people see a spotty brood pattern they think the queens is no good, it could be a few things happening, could bee a bad queen, could be just the time of year, could be shortage of food, and it also could be good like hygienic behavior which could be a waist if you change her.... its up to you...

[pdmattox]

I would try feeding first.

[Understudy]

Feed your bees.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[mgmoore7]

Feeding has started.  Some home made honey b healthy in a jar through the top.