Lots of bees but no sign of a queen

[mitzy]

Hiya - I'm new to this forum and looking for some advice and thoughts.

I went into the winter with 3 hives and gave them a quick check today. There were a reasonable number of bees in each hive, queen wasn't seen. One hive definitely had eggs and brood so sigh of relief there. In hive two, there are a lot of bees but there were no eggs or larvae but the cells were really clean as if they were waiting for a queen to start laying - but that maybe my wishful thinking. In the third (which had two queens in it all of last year) there were no eggs or larvae but instead there were a couple of frames of capped drones. I closed everything up and am planning to wait a week or two to see what happens in these two hives.
Have I lost the queen from both hives and am I right to wait??

 

[richardbees]

mitzy

Yes, you are right to wait as although H1 and H2 look OK and H3 is problematic there's absolutely nothing you can do for the next month or so.
You're lucky having three hives because as soon as the swarming season starts you'll be able to sort things out....

Congratulations on your first post!

richard

 

[Midland Beek]

H1 - Brood at all stages tells you that things are as they should be.

H2 - You would expect a stock to have at least some brood by now. However, if there was no laying queen you would have expected it to have fizzled out by now. Which begs the questions: Did you miss the brood? And, are you sure the bees in the hive weren't robbers from another colony?

H3 - 100% drone brood, ie. unfertilized eggs being layed in worker cells, means the colony has had it. Could well be a drone laying queen, like one that has failed to mate but has started to lay, or (much less likely at this time of year) laying workers.

 

[oliver90owner]

fizzled out by now.

Possibly, but not necessarily. Queen lost in winter (so with no brood now) will mean bees will dwindle only slowly as there is no brood to service, so the ageing process will be at a standstill - just like over-wintering bees.

Regards, RAB