no eggs larva or brood,did i do right?

[biglongdarren]

i opened a hive today that had no eggs larva or brood and couldnt see the queen,she wasnt marked from last year so could still be there,there is still loads of bees and stores and there bringing in pollen and very calm on the comb and not at all nasty like other queenless hives i had last year.
i placed in a test frame to see whats happening, any thoughts??
Darren

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well, that should tell you if she isn't there, but not if she is.

 

[biglongdarren]

could she be there and not laying anything? all the other hives and building up good,if they were to bring on queen cells would it be worth me leaving one to see could i get her mated? i also noticed a few hives are started to bring on a few drones.
Darren

 

[Finman]

.
test frame will reviele out your question. If bees are too old they are not able to draw queen cells. But if they draw, you see it. When you put that brood frame, the queen should soon walk on it.

One trick is to move the hive 10 feets. Then you block it with q-excluder that queen cannot come out.

Let the bees fly to the old site where you have a new hive with one brood frame. If you have a brood frame in old hive, the last bees and the queen will be on that brood frame.

 

[biglongdarren]

i might add that this hive was the last to start getting 1:1 syrup,only started giving it to them maybe 4/5 days ago if that means anything?
Darren

 

[oliver90owner]

Another possibility is a nosemic queen. Feeding last few days means nothing, if you have had similar weather to us on the big island.

 

[Busybee123]

Hey Darren,

Great weather we've been having and by the forcast it is going to last a while yet.

It sounds as if your queen has not made it through the winter. Best option may be to unite with another colony. I would think that the chances of rearing and mating a queen this early would be slim, but if this weather holds I suppose you never know!

I had a look at my bees yesterday - two hives looking good but the third has a drone laying queen in. I had a nuc with a spare queen in it but when I looked at it there was no sign of the queen and no eggs, larvae or brood, so that has sort of cut down my options a bit!

Tom

 

[Meg]

Hi Darren,

I have had the same thing. Queen was last years May time and laying wonderfully right up into October (and probably beyond but I didn't look in). Treated for varroa - tested for nosema, plenty of stores, all happy, loads of bees, but a couple of weeks ago I was suspicious. Just didn't seem right. Had a quick look. No brood, but Q happily wandering around. Gave them a dose of vitafeed and then a frame of eggs and young from another hive. 2 pathetic Q cells yesterday and no sign of old Q - in fact, lots of fanning bees.

As I am now away for the best part of a week I will leave them to it until I am back and think on. Whatever happens next I will check them for nosema prevalence again first (see Randy Oliver's articles on Scientific beekeeping.com) in order to make sure other hives are not infected if there is a problem. If they are OK I will combine them with a small colony on the same site.

Meg

 

[Torq]

i opened a hive today that had no eggs larva or brood and couldnt see the queen,she wasnt marked from last year so could still be there,there is still loads of bees and stores and there bringing in pollen and very calm on the comb and not at all nasty like other queenless hives i had last year.
i placed in a test frame to see whats happening, any thoughts??
Darren

I have a colony that is exactly the same. The queen is there (i've seen her) but she's not laying, bees are content but numbers are dwindling and I'm not going to unite as there is a possibility of disease and anyway, why bother uniting. The bees that colony contributes would be last years and on the decline so wouldn't add any value.

 

[biglongdarren]

I have a colony that is exactly the same. The queen is there (i've seen her) but she's not laying, bees are content but numbers are dwindling and I'm not going to unite as there is a possibility of disease and anyway, why bother uniting. The bees that colony contributes would be last years and on the decline so wouldn't add any value.

so just do nothing and let them run there course? they have maybe 4full brood frames of stores,could i use them anywhere else?
Darren

 

[VEG]

Using the frames of stores would require finding out if there was any disease that caused them to dwindle in the first place.
I have one colony in the same situation I will leave them to it as to add the bees to another colony would not help them.

 

[biglongdarren]

i'll pick 30 of the hives finest this week then and get then sent away to see whats occuring.
whats the most common thing that could be causing this?
Darren

 

[biglongdarren]

i added a nice frame of eggs today to this hive,was it a waste then you think? been as well leaving them where they were at.
Darren

 

[Torq]

Checked mine today that was like yours 3 weeks ago. Gone. No bees left, a few dead on the mesh but that's it.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Nosema a likely candidate,also not helped if using oxalic on nosemic bees.

 

[Torq]

Moved them to a new poly nuc 3 weeks ago and can clearly see faeces all over the front. So it's either dysentry or nosema that put an end to them.

But my strong colony has 7 frames of brood and a few drones so there'll be a spit some time.

 

[SugarPlum]

Hi Darren,

no sign of old Q - in fact, lots of fanning bees.


Meg

Hi Meg
I have a new "nuc" that has been given to me this weekend. But there is no evidence of any brood. However, when I peeped inside today there was no sign of a queen but lots of fanning bees. In fact I have never seen so many bees fanning before. They weren't noisy or aggressive though. What is the significance of this fanning behavious? Thanks.

 

[biglongdarren]

checked the test frame today that i placed in at the start of the week and all sealed and no queen cells drawn,still no fresh eggs though,hadnt time to look though the rest of the hive to see if there was a queen about.
i did noticed though the old remains of a queen cell,most of it was torn away,could have been from the back end of last year.
any ideas??
Darren

 

[Scipio]

I too have a similar problem, hive inspected and colony as it is survived the winter but no queen at all, no brood, eggs, larvae, fair number of bees and stores, but just no q. seemed to be well tempered. What to do?

 

[biglongdarren]

am maybe thinking now that the remains of the old queen cell i noticed was in fact a supersedure cell and that there is a young queen in there now trying to get mated,i will keep them closed for the next few weeks and see what happens,although they already have had a fair bit of looking through so already more damage than good could have been done.
Darren