A question about queens

[richard_walker]

Hi all,

A friend of mine has a problem that I wondered if any of you might now a bit about, he has 6 hives, in 5 of them the queen has stopped laying! He says they all seem quite happy and are behaving in a way that suggests that they could be queen less, and he did say that the queen will have a rest from laying from time to time, but 5 at once? He also said the 6th hive that is still laying is a small swarm and are still building up, I have offered to let him have some brood frames from some my hive in order to re-queen but I some of you had either heard of this problem through your bee keeping, bee club or books etc, any help would be greatly received. Thanks

Richard Walker

 

[Tom Bick]

What are the store levels in the hive like pollen and honey?

Just one more Nosema Ceranae may be worth testing?

 

[REDWOOD]

Queens can go off laying with long periods bad weather causing a lack of stores, bees need honey for energy and pollen for raising brood, tell your friend to check levels and feed if necessarily

 

[richard_walker]

thank you both, its some food for thought

 

[Hebeegeebee]

What are the store levels in the hive like pollen and honey?

Just one more Nosema Ceranae may be worth testing?

I agree with Tom.


I've seen queens stop laying but only the odd one. N. Ceranae was suspected but not tested for at the time.