Drop in egg laying activity/brood

[Tucker1]

Yesterday evening, I spent alot of time inspecting 2 hives in detail.  Both hives were chock full of bees and lots of honey. More honey than last year. Each hive also had several frames of many partially filled honey cells. These were evident everywhere. There were just a few covered brood cells thru-out the hive, located in a random fashion. No eggs or uncapped larva present. No queen cells.  It appears that the queens have just taken a "time out" in laying eggs.  The honey flow here is over, with just some light actively with local weeds, etc.

Is this normal?

With the hives full of honey and very little incoming nectar, are the queens getting ready for winter?
(I have Carnie Queens)

Regards,
Tucker1

[Kathyp]

probably.  you do need to make sure you have queens in there because it will be hard to get any very soon.  i have a fair amount of capped brood in my hives, but very little new.  i don't know about your weather, but i am about 4-5 weeks from my first frost. there is no flow, as you say.  rain will be here soon.  we are about done  :-)

[Hethen57]

Tucker, I saw the same thing in my Carnie hives last night (we purchased on the same day from the same place).  Lots of bees, lots of honey, some capped brood, some larva, lots of empty brood cells and no eggs.  I didn't dig enough to locate the queens because it was late, but I will try to do that this weekend when I remove some honey and do some shuffling to balance hives and assess mite load.  However, the splits I made in early July are still building their populations with their new queens.
-Mike

[Tucker1]

I have a friend in eastern Washington that is experiencing the same situation. I'm hoping it's just the queens throttling back on egg laying, in preparation for fall/winter. The hives are full of bees and lots honey. Compared to last year, my hives have produced more honey. With luck, I hope to be extracting before September. I need to make the time to do the work.

The weather here has been warm during the day time, up in the mid 80's.  The nights have been in the mid 60's. It's been fairly dry, with little rain lately. Somewhat windy at times.

It's hard to think that this isn't a normal situation. It seems to be somewhat common. I hope I'm right.

Regards,
Tucker1

[Kathyp]

i think you are ok.  they cycle has as  much to do with length of day as temp.  remember, they start picking up laying in February when our temps will still be cold, but our days are getting longer.

[Brian D. Bray]

Yesterday evening, I spent alot of time inspecting 2 hives in detail.  Both hives were chock full of bees and lots of honey. More honey than last year. Each hive also had several frames of many partially filled honey cells. These were evident everywhere. There were just a few covered brood cells thru-out the hive, located in a random fashion. No eggs or uncapped larva present. No queen cells.  It appears that the queens have just taken a "time out" in laying eggs.  The honey flow here is over, with just some light actively with local weeds, etc.

Is this normal?

With the hives full of honey and very little incoming nectar, are the queens getting ready for winter?
(I have Carnie Queens)

Regards,
Tucker1

This is not an uncommon event in either Carnies or Russian bees.  Both have a tendency to self-impose a brood dearth (time out) towards the end of honey flows and build up again before the next.  The brood dearth helps control varroa as well as conserves stores.  Stores not fed to making bees means more to be saved towards winter.

[Tucker1]

Thanks, everyone for helping me breathe a little easier.  I appreciate the comments and guidance.