Very little brood

[Woodland bees]

I'm looking for some pointers as to what may be up with one of our hives. It was a strong colony housed last year from a large swarm from one of our other hives. Q is about 2. It's a poly hive and it overwintered fine, and had about 8 frames of brood in it's first inspection of the year, about 6 weeks ago. It has a couple of supers on, one almost full and the other not really touched.

The problem is there's very little brood now, a few larvae per frame. Plenty of bees and the Q is still there. Plenty of flying bees, pollen going in etc.

We are fairly cool compared to the South East but it has been fine and sunny for a few weeks. Plenty of forage about, sycamore, hawthorn + many other plants.

I know Qs sometimes take a break but at I would have expected her to be laying well at this time. Could she just be past it, even at 2?

I have found our bees do seem to be what I can only describe as a bit lazy, it was one of our hives my OH posted about merging with news paper - they just didn't seem to be bothered about chewing threw. (That hive is now doing well).

I can wait another week or so but does it sound like a requeen job? Do Qs suddenly stop laying or do they gradually decline?

Thanks

 

[enrico]

Personally...... I would be patient. If the bees need a new queen generally they will replace her without your help. If they have a queen and stores then that's all they need. Looking forward to other comments!
E

 

[beeno]

Is there room to lay in the brood box. Mine are not moving the honey up in the supers quick enough for my liking. Have you looked for polished cells? I must admit that the laying is a bit cyclical, but they are going for it again at the moment with the very warm weather we are having. My biggest colony has a two year old queen!

 

[Roola]

I've noticed this year I've had a number of queens that have gone off lay and then just disappeared (not swarmed) just gone... Left no viable brood for supersedure, left colony queenless. I've never had it happen in multiple colonies in one season before, very rarely. It's a funny year

 

[beeno]

I've noticed this year I've had a number of queens that have gone off lay and then just disappeared (not swarmed) just gone... Left no viable brood for supersedure, left colony queenless. I've never had it happen in multiple colonies in one season before, very rarely. It's a funny year

Sorry to hear that Roola. Could it be Nosema?

 

[oliver90owner]

Queen is 2 - you mean two years pld?

That may mean she is in her third year?

Change the queen. One way or another.

 

[Finman]

.
Buy a mated Queen. That simple. Something happened to the Queen. Violated somehow or became sick. Do not wait to change it.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes I would just replace her

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Check varroa and nosema load or you may just be wasting money.

 

[mickbees23]

I had exactly the same thing last week and so removed the queen at the weekend when there were no more eggs visible. They had also raised 2 of the worst scrub queen cells I have ever seen so dragged them out as well.
The reason I did this was because of how the queen was being treated by the workers. She was on an outer frame of nectar and pollen and being head butted by the workers, she had no attendant bees with her.

In all honesty she stopped laying a week after I marked her and I think I maybe must have held her too tight and damaged her.

So I placed a frame of eggs from another colony inside and will let them raise a new queen.

Cheers, Mick.

 

[Finman]

.
The Queen should lay foragers now for summer. When you gove eggs, the Queen starts to lay after 3-4 weeks, then 3 weeks that eggs become foragers. IT is mid July, when you get foragers from those eggs. ... A bad business.

 

[mickbees23]

.
The Queen should lay foragers now for summer. When you gove eggs, the Queen starts to lay after 3-4 weeks, then 3 weeks that eggs become foragers. IT is mid July, when you get foragers from those eggs. ... A bad business.

Mid July is perfect for our Heather honey crop which starts beginning of August and can last until almost the end of September.

If they are not strong enough I can always unite with another colony, not too bothered either way, its not a main production colony. If I unite it now the big colony will only swarm and I won't buy non local queens in as we have very nice bees here and I don't want to import strains that may produce aggressive traits further down the line.

Cheers, Mick.

 

[Woodland bees]

Time of a bit of an update. Firstly, I'm not desperate to produce tons of honey so I can take my time. The hive had a superfull of stores so I thought I'd remove the old queen and add a frame of eggs from another hive.

New queen raised (strangely, about 6 frames away from the new frame of eggs). New queen mated and started laying...

However, not a great number of eggs and the colony decided to superseded the new queen. New, new queen was laying last week and now there's four frames of solid, capped brood.

I'm not sure what was up with the colony and/or old queens but I did clear some vegetation to give it some more light.

Now I hope they cope with all the wasps and hornets.