"Lots" of bees but no brood

[RogerJ]

I have two hives which I have just had a quick look at (sunshine at last!). Both are from nucs obtained last year from the local association - so last year's queen. One hive has always seemed "busier" on nice days. The "busier" hive has three frames of brood and plenty of stores although possibly lacking in pollen but loads being brought in today. The other hive seems to have a similar quantity of bees but no brood to be seen - stores situation similar to the "busy" hive but again bringing in pollen today.

Trying to be optimistic is it possible that given the cold weather the queen has gone off lay but is there somewhere and with the warmer weather on its way will come back into lay? if not is it to early to try and raise a queen by giving new eggs from the other hive (no drone brood as yet in that one).

Thanks.

 

[maddydog]

Did you actually see the queen? How good are you at spotting eggs? Some queens can be a little slow and sporadic to get going but I'd expect bias by now.
A frame of eggs from your other hive won't do any harm and may do some good. Just make sure you don't transfer the queen over!

 

[Swarm]

Your other hive only has three frames of brood, it can't afford to donate. Allow some time and things may change, at least your other colony should be growing by then.

 

[maddydog]

Your other hive only has three frames of brood, it can't afford to donate. Allow some time and things may change, at least your other colony should be growing by then.

Frame of eggs is nowt resources wise.

 

[Eyeman]

Your other hive only has three frames of brood, it can't afford to donate. Allow some time and things may change, at least your other colony should be growing by then.

If you are concerned about donating a whole frame.
Cut a 2"x2" piece of the comb with eggs and press it into a similar size hole you have cut out from one of your frames in the hive you want ot donate the eggs to.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Unlikely the queen has gone off lay. She could be the original one but now dud or more likely in my view an unmated virgin from late last year.
You can donate a frame of eggs/brood and then return it to the donor hive a few days later if you want to check for queenlessness. Subject to the usual disease warnings of tranferring things from one hive to another. However I suspect that you will need to find the duff queen and unite the colonies. Might be worth moving them towards each other whilst you are checking for queenlessness to enable an efficient unite if they are more than a metre or two apart.

 

[Swarm]

One frame is a third of the brood. Why jeopardise an already weak colony? Even if there were sufficient drones, how good a queen will that weak colony raise?

 

[RogerJ]

Thanks for the comments so far. The hive was certainly Q+ going into winter - so if she has gone AWOL it has been since then.

The weather here has been dire here what with snow and rain and rain and rain... We are also at 250m so often a couple of degrees lower than down in the valley.

C'est la vie...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Frame of eggs is nowt resources wise.

It is when it's 30% of an obviously small colony

 

[drex]

My queens have only just come back into lay. Eggs but only some sealed brood

 

[Funny honey]

A lot of posts about going round about lack of laying queens, maybe too early?

 

[Codford]

A lot of posts about going round about lack of laying queens, maybe too early?

One of my queens has yet to get going, the other is laying like a train - interestingly this is the hive that wolfed down their pollen substitute ( the other lot wouldn’t touch the stuff).

 

[maddydog]

It is when it's 30% of an obviously small colony

Nope, don't agree. Not talking about capped brood, just a frame with eggs

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

doesn't really matter what it is, it's a frame full (so doubtless it will be BIAS) it will all be capped brood in a week - it's 30% of the available expansion, which, for a weak colony is far too much to lose.
Daft advice to give to a beginner.

 

[maddydog]

doesn't really matter what it is, it's a frame full (so doubtless it will be BIAS) it will all be capped brood in a week - it's 30% of the available expansion, which, for a weak colony is far too much to lose.
Daft advice to give to a beginner.

Sigh

 

[mickbees23]

I have two hives which I have just had a quick look at (sunshine at last!). Both are from nucs obtained last year from the local association - so last year's queen. One hive has always seemed "busier" on nice days. The "busier" hive has three frames of brood and plenty of stores although possibly lacking in pollen but loads being brought in today. The other hive seems to have a similar quantity of bees but no brood to be seen - stores situation similar to the "busy" hive but again bringing in pollen today.

Trying to be optimistic is it possible that given the cold weather the queen has gone off lay but is there somewhere and with the warmer weather on its way will come back into lay? if not is it to early to try and raise a queen by giving new eggs from the other hive (no drone brood as yet in that one).

Thanks.

Its possible she could have gone off lay given how bad the weather was in March but I would have expected even just a 50p size patch of eggs or brood by now. She may have been superceded late last year and you now have a virgin queen but I would still expect to see at least some drone brood. There is a week of good weather forecast so I would at least give them that long to see if there is any sign of eggs / brood. Pollen is a good sign. Rather than give a frame from your only other colony and possibly weaken its effort to rebuild after winter you could just leave it to nature and consider making increase from your queen right colony in a months time if this colony dies out. I personally wouldn't unite them its way to risky.

If you do decide to donate a frame with some eggs I wouldn't consider it to weaken the other colony too much as the size of the brood area they are raising is likely related more to the number of bees able to cover the brood area rather than the resources they have. I wouldn't remove any frame that had a large proportion of well developed or sealed brood though and would look for an outer brood frame with possibly just a small patch of eggs. A lot of my colonies now have quite small areas of just eggs either side of capped brood frames and the queens are often on those frames looking to expand, remember the rugby ball shape of brood. Make sure you don't transfer the queen..LOL

 

[drex]

Last week, one of my hives was struggling with not many bees, some capped brood, but no uncapped and a few eggs. Little pollen in the hive, so I gave a pollen comb from a good strong colony, and shook in some bees from 3 other strong colonies - making sure HM was not on the frame. They needed pollen and more bees. Now HM is laying well.