Patchy brood advice - MAQ or Q problem?

[dlawr42103]

Wondered if anyone could advise on one of my hives that has very patchy brood and is struggling this year. Photos attached. Below is a summary of the main points.

. Bought-in Buckfast Q, introduced 9/4/14
. Running on commercials
. 2014 excellent results, prolific & successful in all ways
. Spring 2015 good start to year, building up fast
. Early April found very High varroa load, natural drop ~100 / day
. Other hives very low varroa
. Treated with MAQ's 9/4/15, weather conditions ok
. From this point on the brood has been very patchy
. Typically lots of eggs in most empty cells, quite a lot of capped brood, but very little uncapped brood
. Typically 10 frames will have some brood in various stages
. No other symptoms, all appear healthy to me
. Numbers of bees has been very slowly increasing, bees on all frames, but even now end of July they are no where near full strength
. Ran EFB tests anyway, negative each time
. Varroa count now very low
. Now have changed out all brood frames, only new drawn frames now
. Less patchy on freshly drawn frames, but still patchy

I think a proportion of the eggs are disappearing / failing to hatch... although I don't know why, certainly no problem until April of this year. I did use MAQ's on all my other hives with no side-effects.

I do have a couple of new Q's in nucs ready, but this Q was so prolific last year, and she is still laying furiously, that I keep hoping this will rectify itself eventually.

Any thoughts / suggestions? .. PS only my 2nd year, so happy to learn from others.

 

[drstitson]

you appear to have BIAS but interspersed with pollen and nectar.
Does the queen have space to lay and do the workers have space for storing nectar?

 

[Finman]

.
What ever, the Queen is not in condition. Get a new laying Queen.

And combs are old. Renew them.

 

[B+.]

I think a proportion of the eggs are disappearing / failing to hatch... although I don't know why, certainly no problem until April of this year. I did use MAQ's on all my other hives with no side-effects.

Clearly you have brood in all stages but the pattern is not as we would expect. Your first photo shows an uncapped cell about 6 in from the left on the top row (possibly varroa???). Other than that, they appear healthy (some colour variation but I put that down to the photography...although you obvioulsy suspected EFB and eliminated it). Do you have problems with chalk brood in your apiary? I see no evidence of it in the combs but the difference in the age of the brood indicates that they have removed some of it for some reason. You may have a hygienic colony that has removed chalk brood larvae in the very early stages. Then the queen has come along and relaid the frame...causing the brood to appear in different stages.
Others will be able to tell you if the MAQ was responsible for the removal of the young brood. I've never used it so can't comment....my money would be on the colony removing varroa infested cells. Its interesting that you say your varroa count is down now. If that was the problem, it should correct itself.

 

[tazbee]

Hi
Had a very similar problem in three hives after using Maq's, no new brood, no sign of eggs, and a lot of dead bees, queen's looked healthy, so I let them get on with it, hives are now strong. (treated in March)
The rest of my hives (4) were all ok after treatment
I will never use Maq's ever again

 

[dlawr42103]

They have plenty of room for stores as I have been working the frames to the outsides and replacing with new incase there was anything nasty in the older comb.

The uncapped one did have a vorroa on it, I then uncapped abt 100 and found only one more, which I didn't think was too bad for this time of year.

The maq knocked the varroa down very effectively, has been low levels since mid-may. It also took out most the uncapped brood and some of the capped. But it also did this to my other colonies which all bounced back strongly.

 

[dlawr42103]

No sign of chalk brood either, I put a large clean board under the hive to see if I could find discarded grubs (had this on another hive last year) but nothing appears. There are quite a lot of ants that I guess would quickly consume any discarded eggs or small grubs. I also vaselined the stand legs incase the ants were robbing eggs as I was finding these on the varroa floor.

 

[B+.]

The maq knocked the varroa down very effectively, has been low levels since mid-may. It also took out most the uncapped brood and some of the capped. But it also did this to my other colonies which all bounced back strongly.

This may be just your second year but you're doing everything right as far as I can see.
It looks like you have identified the cause yourself. Perhaps the other colonies rebounded better but you will always see some variation.

 

[MuswellMetro]

They have plenty of room for stores as I have been working the frames to the outsides and replacing with new incase there was anything nasty in the older comb.

The uncapped one did have a vorroa on it, I then uncapped abt 100 and found only one more, which I didn't think was too bad for this time of year.

The maq knocked the varroa down very effectively, has been low levels since mid-may. It also took out most the uncapped brood and some of the capped. But it also did this to my other colonies which all bounced back strongly.

what size brood box is the buckfast in a wbc, national standard or 14x12

 

[dlawr42103]

I run on commercials, which is 16 x 10 I think.

 

[Eyeman]

Hi
I'd go with a queen problem. Your pepper pot brood does look like it due to disease. Replace the queen

 

[Hivemaker.]

I'd go with a queen problem.

Likewise, and whether it was caused by the formic treatment or just coincidence that she started to fail after the treatment, i have read that formic can make drones infertile, so maybe in some instances it could also effect the queens in a similar way.