No brood or queen

[Darryl]

Just completed an inspection on my 2 hives. Bees seemed quite content (unlike 2 weeks ago). However last week there was plenty of capped brood which has now hatched. No capped or uncapped brood today. No eggs, larvae or queen spotted (although both queens are shy and hide when the hive is opened). Plenty of forage at present so good stores in brood and super. On one hive there are some open (trial) QC and one capped one. The other hive has a few unfinished, empty QC and one capped one. Bee numbers are largely unchanged so if they have swarmed, few workers went.
Is it time for action/panic? My main concern is the lack of brood and the possibility of a missing queen. Any advice please.

 

[enrico]

At a guess both of your hives have swarmed. This is something you should try to control in future years and you need to research the way that will suit you best. You now need to go through both hives and leave one queen cell, preferably with larvae and royal jelly showing rather than eggs or capped. If the capped cells have brown ends then they are likely to be close to being opened and it would be best to leave one of them. You need to remove all unwanted queen cells.
Are you doing regular five day inspections? Are you worried about losing swarms? It is too late for panic and more a time for patience and trying to recoup your hives into queen right colonies

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Bees will swarm with a capped queencell. After a few days the beekeeper won't notice that the number of bees has reduced because so many are emerging which makes up the numbers.
No capped or uncapped brood means that the queen has not been laying for 21 days.

Workers:-
Eggs: 3 days
Open brood: 6 days
Sealed Brood: 12 days.

Queencell :-
8 days from egg to sealed. (3 days egg, 5 days open brood).
8 days sealed before emergence.
5 ish days before a queen is mature enough to mate. She will mate in good weather only.
2 days minimum before she will start laying after mating. The larger colony, the longer it takes, typically she is laying after a week but it could be longer in a big colony.

 

[Darryl]

At a guess both of your hives have swarmed. This is something you should try to control in future years and you need to research the way that will suit you best. You now need to go through both hives and leave one queen cell, preferably with larvae and royal jelly showing rather than eggs or capped. If the capped cells have brown ends then they are likely to be close to being opened and it would be best to leave one of them. You need to remove all unwanted queen cells.
Are you doing regular five day inspections? Are you worried about losing swarms? It is too late for panic and more a time for patience and trying to recoup your hives into queen right colonies

I've been doing weekly inspections but clearly missed something. I think I've spent too much time on trying to understand the many various ways of swarm prevention/control whereas I might have been better sticking to one method and going with it.
Am I best waiting until the QCs hatch and if there are no eggs after two weeks requeen th hives?

At a guess both of your hives have swarmed. This is something you should try to control in future years and you need to research the way that will suit you best. You now need to go through both hives and leave one queen cell, preferably with larvae and royal jelly showing rather than eggs or capped. If the capped cells have brown ends then they are likely to be close to being opened and it would be best to leave one of them. You need to remove all unwanted queen cells.
Are you doing regular five day inspections? Are you worried about losing swarms? It is too late for panic and more a time for patience and trying to recoup your hives into queen right colonies

 

[Erichalfbee]

I've been doing weekly inspections but clearly missed something. I think I've spent too much time on trying to understand the many various ways of swarm prevention/control whereas I might have been better sticking to one method and going with it.
Am I best waiting until the QCs hatch and if there are no eggs after two weeks requeen th hives?

If you are waiting for the new queens to emerge two weeks is not long enough. Three weeks is good going and six weeks is when you might give up. Then you have to put in a test frame to make sure they are queenless. The last thing you need is the bees killing your new queen because they have one of sorts already

 

[enrico]

Your best bet he is just to be patient. Leave the bees to it for six weeks. As long as you have only left one queen cell in each hive they should come right! You may be unlucky and have empty sealed queen cells but that is rare. In six weeks have a look for eggs.
As far as swarm control goes learn one and use it. If you don't get on with it the learn another and try that. Pagden is a basic one that works ok as does putting the queen in a nuc.

 

[Darryl]

Your best bet he is just to be patient. Leave the bees to it for six weeks. As long as you have only left one queen cell in each hive they should come right! You may be unlucky and have empty sealed queen cells but that is rare. In six weeks have a look for eggs.
As far as swarm control goes learn one and use it. If you don't get on with it the learn another and try that. Pagden is a basic one that works ok as does putting the queen in a nuc.

Thanks everyone. I can concentrate on the colony surviving by producing their own queen or having one imported. I will locate a local (NWUK) supplier of mated queens in case. Lesson learned - hopefully I will get it right in future.