Hemo,
Please cf. what I said in a post on the main forum:
So for the first time in a while I've been around to inspect three colonies which my dad largely looks after. It's all a bit complex but the crux of it is that all three of them are broodless/ eggless. Dad told me that Hive 1 had swarmed on Thursday (he could not catch the swarm). Weirdly, when I took a look at it, this one had no queen cells (unhatched or hatched) in it. My dad then revealed to my annoyance that 10 days previously he had inspected it and knocked out 5 queen cells; in this case, might the prime have swarmed anyway leaving a queenless colony? Hive 2 had several old-looking hatched queen cells, and the odd spot of dead brood around the edge of the nest. The third had no queen cells. All three colonies, in terms of numbers, looked like they had lost a swarm (or two). There was a lot of nectar and pollen in all three hives. Unfortunately, I do not have spare frames of brood to use as test frames, but am hoping a friendly local beekeeper might help me in this regard. My hope, which is perhaps wishful thinking, is that all three are in pretty much the same position of being headed up by a virgin who has either not been mated or only just got mated (doing the maths in my head this might, I think, explain the broodlessness), but what makes me doubt this is the lack of hatched queen cells in two of the hives. I fear the weather / my dad's destructive approach might have resulted in all three of them being queenless; am I being pessimistic and need to be more patient?
The reason for my perhaps overly cautious approach is because I haven't been able to get into these colonies as have moved down to the West Country, and my dad who is very much learning had made a mess of a few ops. My gut is that all three are actually Q+ but better sade than sorry eh!
Ben
