Queenless hive

Frosty27 · Mar 27, 2022

Went down to my hives to have a quick check of fondant levels yesterday. While I was there I became suspicious. One hive I saw loads of pollen going in and lots of activity. Hive two there was no pollen going in at all and a lot less activity. Decided to investigate.No brood whatsoever. Didn't see a queen and there was definitely no eggs or brood. Can anything be done?

jenkinsbrynmair · Mar 27, 2022

Not really, it seems like they are queenless, if so, they will just dwindle. Unless you are certain there's no queen in there, not really wise to unite, so as a precaution I'd just shake them out.

nettle · Mar 27, 2022

I'm in the same position. I went for a quick check this afternoon, just to look at the stores and see if they had space to expand. Both hives were really busy from the outside, lots of pollen going in. In fact, the hive in question was the busier of the two. But I found no brood or eggs, so I did an inspection of all the frames and there are none at all.

The other hive has brood in all stages, so I'm leaving them to it now before doing a proper inspection, probably for another couple of weeks at least (north of Scotland). I'm really disappointed though. From the outside everything looks really good

nettle · Mar 27, 2022

jenkinsbrynmair said:
Unless you are certain there's no queen in there, not really wise to unite, so as a precaution I'd just shake them out.

Why would it be best to shake them out rather than just leave them to dwindle naturally? As a precaution against disease?

jenkinsbrynmair · Mar 27, 2022

nettle said:
Why would it be best to shake them out rather than just leave them to dwindle naturally? As a precaution against disease?

lazy beekeeping, and definitely not a precaution against disease, what do you think robbers would do?
Shake them out, the bees have some use left in them and will beg themselves in to other hives you can then sort out the combs etc properly.
I agree - if you fear you have disease then you should also check them properly and maybe contact your SBI

nettle · Mar 27, 2022

jenkinsbrynmair said:
lazy beekeeping, and definitely not a precaution against disease, what do you think robbers would do?
Shake them out, the bees have some use left in them and will beg themselves in to other hives you can then sort out the combs etc properly.
I agree - if you fear you have disease then you should also check them properly and maybe contact your SBI

I don't fear disease, there was no sign of anything untoward. When you said 'as a precaution', I was wondering against what.