What would you do... no brood?

[Etton]

Inspected two hives yesterday, one with 5 frames of brood and the other with none but both fairly strong? Saw both queens.
I disposed of the non laying queen and merged the two hives (with air freshener).
Hives adjacent to OSR and located in East Yorks.
Was I premature.... would you at this time of the year have given the hive with no brood more time for the Q to start laying ?

 

[manek]

I had a similar experience: one queenless colony, two queen-right. So yesterday I united the queenless colony with a queen-right colony. No drones around so the alternative was to watch them die.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Was I premature.... would you at this time of the year have given the hive with no brood more time for the Q to start laying ?

Personally with your number of hives...no

 

[Poly Hive]

Further North than you I found that colonies in poly were as much as two to three weeks later in brooding compared to timber. I'd have waited a bit longer.

PH

 

[Moka]

I had a similar experience: one queenless colony, two queen-right. So yesterday I united the queenless colony with a queen-right colony. No drones around so the alternative was to watch them die.

If you united the colony, you need to wait. Live the hive for two weeks with out disturbing. You will see the difference.
Remember the colony is a community they're organise the new neighbours into the colony.
Changes affected in different ways . I'm sure, you will have a good result.
Bees are so clever.
Moka

 

[sherwood]

several possibilities here
1 your queen could have gone off lay likeley
2 your queen was infertile possible but if she had been laying before you might expect to see drone brood first
actions you could have taken
1 remove non laying queen and introduce frame with eggs from other hive you could put old queen in queen cage above the cover board
2 leave hive for a further 2 weeks and perhaps feed if you had no supers on and see if she starts laying
3 obtain a further queen and replace
4 ensure that there were cells available for the queen to lay in if not introduce a frame of drawn foundation
5 unite