Why aren't any of my queens laying?

[contactme_11]

At one of the locations I have hives (3), I have not been very good about inspections lately. I went through them yesterday and I found as follows:
Hive 1: package started this year, was laying like crazy last month, found the queen and she appeared fine, plenty of stores but no eggs or brood.
Hive 2: split in may, made their own queen who was laying well last inspection, didn't find the queen, plenty of stores, but no eggs or brood.
Hive 3: same split from may, provided a mated queen in june (unknown if she started laying), found queen, plenty of stores, no eggs or brood.

Couldn't be all bad queens could it? Is it a sign of dearth and I should be feeding?

[Kathyp]

it is most likely that the flow in your area has stopped for the moment.  you may feed, but will there be a fall flow? if there is, is there a risk of the hives becoming honey bound?  this time of the year can be difficult to judge.  laying will slow anyway and the bees will begin to backfill the brood area.  you want them to store enough for winter, but you do not want the brood area to fill prematurely.  you also don't want them using all stores to early and not having enough for winter.

in a normal year, i don't start feeding until mid august when i pull supers.  there is almost no fall flow here.  mid august gives me time to feed and if needed, treat for mites before our first frost mid September or so.  it's a judgment call on your part.  do you have any experienced beekeepers in your area that can give you an idea of what to expect for fall flow?

[contactme_11]

I guess my question is really: if I start feeding, should the queens start laying? I really need to build up the splits with bees.

[Kathyp]

maybe and it won't hurt to try.  just keep an eye on your space.  a late swarm sucks.

[Hethen57]

In theory, feeding 1:1 syrup should simulate a nectar flow and it should get the queens laying.  I have a few nucs that I am doing that with right now to build up their hive numbers.  Like kathyp said, just be on the lookout for them backfilling the brood chamber with syrup..but with some managment, you should be able to shift frames around and/or pull frames and insert foundation and solve that issue.