Queen stopped laying, then started again...

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Pennyfold Bees

New Bee
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
Location
Petersfield
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
2
Hi everyone,

I have a question, similar one which has been asked before (2 years ago on this post: http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14027). However I just wanted to ask for advice regarding my specific situation to confirm if all is 'normal'.

I have 2 hives, located in Petersfield, Hampshire. Both hives are new this year, the first colony was quite a challenge as the bees kept making QC and after tearing them down for couple of months, I decided to make a nuc from the old queen (as my dad was looking for a new colony of bees anyway). That was a fun experience for a first year beekeeper and it worked. I had removed the original Q and brood frames mid-July. The new queen started laying 4 weeks after I'd seen the capped QC that I had left, I was feeling a little concerned as I'd had to travel overseas and left the bees in the care of another green beekeeper, but the new Q came good. Obviously the number of bees in this colony was a lot less as she only started laying again mid-August, with a gap of nearly 5 weeks with no eggs laid. Q has continued laying although today (24 Sept) when inspecting the colony the eggs/larvae was only on 3 brood frames and not many. I believe this is to be expected given the time of year. Hive has plenty of honey, half the brood & 1 super and pollen stores. Colony is looking strong.

The second colony has been really great. This was a really good quality nuc that I received as a replacement to the first troubled one. This second colony has been very busy and productive, draw comb and filled 3 supers full of honey from when I got them at the end of June to early August. They looked particularly busy in the last month compared to the first, however given the split of the first hive I think quite normal. My friend has been inspecting, during Aug/Sept, and he definitely saw eggs/larvae & capped brood on 31 August. He said the hive was busy on 7 Sept but didn't specifically confirm seeing eggs. When I inspected the bees on 16 September, I couldn't see any uncapped brood, just capped brood, and no eggs. The inspection was in the afternoon and the light wasn't so good so I thought I may have missed eggs. I did however see the Q and she look fine. I then inspected the bees today, 24 Sept in good light and definitely saw no larvae, just a few capped brood and around 10 eggs, on one frame. I didn't see the Q on the inspection today. I'm a little confused by this, it definitely looks like a few eggs (have a photo but struggling to crop it to attach), but no larvae. Hive has plenty of honey, half the brood & 2 supers and pollen stores, colony is looking strong.

Was early September too early for the Q stop laying in hive 2?
Could this behaviour be due to the hive having plenty of bees and the weather getting colder in early September? Then over the last few days we've had some warmer weather so she started laying again.
Has Q started laying again or could it be a worker laying a few eggs?
Should I be concerned/do anything or just wait through to see how they are in Spring?

Note that I have not applied any varroa treatment to my hives. Probably should have done, but being overseas meant I've not got around to this. I've seen very little evidence of varroa in either hive.

Thanks so much.
 
Others will know FAR more than me about what is going on, but just to let you know there has been a lot of chat about brood breaks in that bad week or so we had, with some people blaming thymol treatment but others having it who were not treating. Hopefully the good week this week sorts it out.

Three supers off your nuc. I am green with jealousy.

<ADD> See #28 of http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=367101&postcount=28 it seems REALLY general.</ADD>
 
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i checked a nuc for a friend the other day and there was no sign of eggs larva and not even sealed brood, she was there ok and laying well up to this, there was no treatments on and are now getting fed to see if that gets her going again.
Darren
 
Queens seem to have stopped for a bit. Some of my more yellow queens a little keener to keep going, the darks, very little action

Heavy feeding hasn't encouraged mine too much either.

Reports that ivy is flowering should start a flow of nectar & pollen - and a welcome batch of overwintering bees.
 
Just to confirm that, when checked on Sunday, 3 queens seem to have stopped laying - in 2 hives the queens were present and seemed perfectly happy (presuming I can tell, as I'm not a bee!) but in the third there was a dead queen on the floor -- however, she was among around 500 other dead bees, which I can only link to the use of MAQS 7 days earlier (hoping that a mated supercedure Q is hiding in there somewhere...). It seems as though the laying stopped before the MAQS application as there was no brood/larvae either but all had been 'normal' around 4 weeks beforehand. Just when you think you're getting the hang of things, they go and confound you!!
 
Checked my 5 star Hive yesterday.
It was full of Bees, all busy collecting food. No new brood.
I saw the Queen who appeared quite happy.
The Bees remain gentle and also appear happy.
So
I am guessing that the Bees know something we dont know.
Looks like it may be a long winter ahead of us.

I might pop into Netto's and stock up on survival food (Beans)
 
Just to confirm that, when checked on Sunday, 3 queens seem to have stopped laying - in 2 hives the queens were present and seemed perfectly happy (presuming I can tell, as I'm not a bee!) but in the third there was a dead queen on the floor -- however, she was among around 500 other dead bees, which I can only link to the use of MAQS 7 days earlier (hoping that a mated supercedure Q is hiding in there somewhere...). It seems as though the laying stopped before the MAQS application as there was no brood/larvae either but all had been 'normal' around 4 weeks beforehand. Just when you think you're getting the hang of things, they go and confound you!!

A lot of bees, mainly drones, tend to die from now on. Otherwise, starvation?
 
Queens seem to have stopped for a bit. Some of my more yellow queens a little keener to keep going, the darks, very little action

As it should be: Carni and Amm mixes know how to regulate their brood and stores, Italian types just brood and eat and keel over if the food runs out...
 
Checked my 5 star Hive yesterday.
It was full of Bees, all busy collecting food. No new brood.
I saw the Queen who appeared quite happy.
The Bees remain gentle and also appear happy.
So
I am guessing that the Bees know something we dont know.
Looks like it may be a long winter ahead of us.

I might pop into Netto's and stock up on survival food (Beans)

Not challenging, curious; how do you reach that conclusion? Because they need to lay winter-bee eggs later?
 
Note that I have not applied any varroa treatment to my hives. Probably should have done, but being overseas meant I've not got around to this. I've seen very little evidence of varroa in either hive.

Thanks so much.

I'm sure someone with a lot more experience than me will help you out but you could probably still treat with MAQS. It would be a shame if all your hard work this year was all in vain...
 
A lot of bees, mainly drones, tend to die from now on. Otherwise, starvation?

That's true but these weren't drones. And I don't beleive it was starvation as it has a full super (really full, including a good pollen arc) and a couple of frames of food in the brood box. The first death wave was within 12 hours of applying the MAQS -- the very next morning, and this is what leads me to link the events. To be fair, there were very few deaths in the other hives, where the only difference is that they are cedar and the death-site is poly. Temperature perhaps? Hmmm.

But glad to hear that the halted laying is a shared issue and therefore probably not due to treatment side-effects or 'beekeeper error'. I will ponder for a long while (and stock up on beans...) :)
 
That's true but these weren't drones. And I don't beleive it was starvation as it has a full super (really full, including a good pollen arc) and a couple of frames of food in the brood box. The first death wave was within 12 hours of applying the MAQS -- the very next morning, and this is what leads me to link the events. To be fair, there were very few deaths in the other hives, where the only difference is that they are cedar and the death-site is poly. Temperature perhaps?
But glad to hear that the halted laying is a shared issue and therefore probably not due to treatment side-effects or 'beekeeper error'. I will ponder for a long while (and stock up on beans...) :)


As regards the stopping laying:

Even in our very warm untreated hives we have seen this, All 5 have gone through this.
Something has happened, and the bees know it but they are not telling

Its fun being a beekeeper, thats why i'm just the beekeeper's physicist/engineer
 
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Thanks for the feedback

Thanks for everyone's feedback. I'm feeling better about leaving my bees with my friend, while I go on another business trip away to the sun!

I might pop into Netto's and stock up on survival food (Beans)

:icon_204-2: I first thought you meant survival food for the bees and couldn't work out what sort of Beans bees would like... :icon_204-2:
 
"Something has happened, and the bees know it but they are not telling"

well accept for those with balsam the combination of weather changing and lack of pollen pre-ivy is probably main reason.
 
"Something has happened, and the bees know it but they are not telling"

well except for those with balsam the combination of weather changing and lack of pollen pre-ivy is probably main reason.

Hi drstitson and others,
:iagree:
Bar one, all my queens are now producing winter bees. Looking back at my hive records for last year, peak winter bee brood was inspection 6 Oct. The one which was totally broodless, have started bringing in pollen, but have not inspected yet! However, it has been perfect brood rearing weather here with warm nights, so if not why not? Have not seen really heavy loads of Ivy pollen yet though. Three put to bed, one to go!
 
Seems lots in the same position, myself included.

6 colonies all with zero brood meaning at least the queens stopped laying 3 weeks or more ago... 5th September 29 degrees recorded where I am in SE, apiary was at 32, following day 6th September 17 degrees recorded, same in apiary, that's a massive 15 degree drop from previous day... this is what I am telling myself is the cause and of course the timings are almost perfect..... they must know something as it is too much of a coincidence for all of them plus numerous posters saying the same thing.

Roll on the Ivy, lord knows we will all be pleased to see it flower.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Seems lots in the same position, myself included.

6 colonies all with zero brood meaning at least the queens stopped laying 3 weeks or more ago... 5th September 29 degrees recorded where I am in SE, apiary was at 32, following day 6th September 17 degrees recorded, same in apiary, that's a massive 15 degree drop from previous day... this is what I am telling myself is the cause and of course the timings are almost perfect..... they must know something as it is too much of a coincidence for all of them plus numerous posters saying the same thing.

Roll on the Ivy, lord knows we will all be pleased to see it flower.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I really like that theory, because it was a nationwide drop more or less. Terrible for the varroa, with any luck, with treatment much more effective given even a small amount of luck.
 
Removed apiguard yesterday from 4 colonies and checked for eggs/brood/stores. All colonies had fresh nectar, two colonies had BIAS, one had sealed brood only but queen seen and the last had no BIAS whatsoever.
Will check next week but am expecting the queen to start laying in this colony now the apiguard has been removed.
Bee race wise the colony lacking BIAS is a 1st generation NZ carniolan offspring, the others are all local mongrels.
 
"Terrible for the varroa, with any luck, with treatment much more effective given even a small amount of luck."

provided people got on and treated in the next couple of weeks covering period with no new brood to cap.

unfortunately some people were dithering waiting for suitable temps/weather to treat/open hives, rather than getting on and treating.
 

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