Double Brood Boxes Full of Honey

[NigelR]

Hi,

Although this is my my first post I have been keeping bees for a number of years and bumbling along with just one colony for the last couple of seasons due to previous over winter losses and moving house.

This year I decided I would try split my double brood boxed colony and raise or buy a new Q for the new Q- colony I was going to create to start to increase my precarious 1 colony situation.

The double, has been pretty active however, when I opened it up the two brood boxes were completely full of honey and nectar but because of all of the honey there was no evidence eggs or lava or even cells for them to go into. Having checked all of the frames I fear that the hive may be Q- and having put a QE between the 2 brood boxes to try and determine which one of either might have a Q I am not sure what to do next.

I am loathed to simply buy a queen as I don't have another hive to get brood from.

Any suggestions would-be appreciated.

Many thanks.

 

[enrico]

Split them, replace three or four food frames in each box with drawn comb, add a super to each for room and see which has eggs in after three days. Allow the other to make queen cells by putting some eggs across from the one with the queen
E

 

[NigelR]

Enrico,

Many thanks for your prompt suggestion, which is greatly appreciated,

N

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You stated there is no sign of eggs or larvae so sounds to me as if the queen is long gone - how many bees are there?

 

[NigelR]

Enough to cover most of the frames in both Brood boxes. When the hive was broken down for inspection there was bearding at the entrance and lots of airborne.

The were all very calm which made me wonder if there might have been a virgin queen or recently mated in there somewhere.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The were all very calm which made me wonder if there might have been a virgin queen or recently mated in there somewhere.

could be - they do sometime backfill on a flow if they have an unmated queen whilst there is no chance of brood.
If you suspect that, I wouldn't muck around too much with the setup of the hive as you could end up confusing and losing your queen when she returns from a mating flight, just put on a queen excluder and a super so they have room to shift the stores to make room for her when she starts laying (and fingers crossed that this is the scenario)

 

[NigelR]

Many thanks for your suggestion, appreciated!

 

[ericbeaumont]

could be - they do sometime backfill on a flow if they have an unmated queen whilst there is no chance of brood.
If you suspect that, I wouldn't muck around too much with the setup of the hive as you could end up confusing and losing your queen when she returns from a mating flight, just put on a queen excluder and a super so they have room to shift the stores to make room for her when she starts laying (and fingers crossed that this is the scenario)

I agree; give them a fortnight and look for eggs.
Enrico's method is fine once you know that a Q is at work.

 

[Susan1]

Just out of interest if you have lots of stores in the brood box can this be taken for human use. I have a double brood which has a lot of sealed stores and removed some to make room for egg laying. Could I extract it?

 

[Swarm]

Did you feed them? Are you certain it is honey?

 

[Mandeville]

when I opened it up the two brood boxes were completely full of honey and nectar but because of all of the honey there was no evidence eggs or lava or even cells for them to go into.

Do you have a super on this hive? I've just had exactly this experience. I was a bit puzzled until I found the Q had got up into the super and was busily laying there.

 

[Susan1]

Yes I had a super on and exactly same queen was in there laying away. I fed the bees in winter I was reading about not using it if they had had varroa treatment so maybe I will keep it for the Bees.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I fed the bees in winter

So it's not honey then - whether treated for varroa or not

 

[Bear]

So it's not honey then - whether treated for varroa or not

Just like supermarkets own brand honey!! And a few others you find in the supermarket!!!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Just like supermarkets own brand honey!! And a few others you find in the supermarket!!!