View Full Version : No brood, what to do?
2hives
10-24-2005, 10:44 AM
I have 2 hives. I did a complete inspection of both last Saturday. Each hive is: 2 deep brood chambers with one med. super on top, 90% full of capped honey, also plenty of capped honey in the upper deeps, and pollen. Both seem to be ready for winter. One hive is very strong with bees, and lots of capped brood. The other is also strong with bees, but seems to have no capped brood, in fact, I couldn't find any eggs or larva either. There is lots of honey, nectar and pollen. Bees act normal, good foraging still going on. Could I be queenless? Also, I installed Api-life Var in both hives, inserted sticky boards below the screened bottoms. The next day, I see pieces of brood cappings in both hives' sticky boards, although much more so in the hive with capped brood. I'm confused....I didn't see any capped brood in one hive, only capped honey. Why would I see brood capping pieces?
Dave W
10-24-2005, 11:02 AM
2hives . . .
Not sure, but let me "think" . . .
Are you sure its "brood cappings" or Honey capping?
Queenless is possible, but has the hive "shut down" for winter?
Hive w/ lots of mites? could have "all the brood removed" IF it was heavily infested w/ V-mites.
Mitch
10-24-2005, 11:29 AM
The one hive with more capping pieces may be being robbed out and might be queenless.Look again closely and see if you can find the queen or eggs.If not look in the hive with the capped brood and see if you can find eggs if you do take the frame of eggs and put it in the hive with no brood and see if they make a queen cell then you will know if it is queenless they will not make a queen cell if there is a queen.if they do make a queen cell they need a queen.Depending on how much time you have left before cold weather you can either let them make there own queen of buy one.You first have to make sure they are queenless or you will be wasting good time and money on queens.They will kill the queen even if there is a virgin queen in the hive.In the case there is a virging queen she will mate and be laying in a week or 2.
2hives
10-24-2005, 11:58 AM
Dave W, no high mite counts. Only 15 or so in a 24 hr. drop. Brood cappings are dark, as these were, both light and dark, making me think their are bees emerging from brood cells. Would this hive shut down, while still foraging?
Michael, I have not observed any robbing. I know what robbing is like, I had a 3rd hive robbed out in August. Plus, there was a lot of uncapped nectar. I'll check again for the queen, or perhaps what I thought was capped honey in the top med. super was actually brood. The med. super was one I put on last month, to supplement the deep brood chamber's honey. Maybe they ate some of the honey, and now the queen is laying in the medium? I didn't pull every frame in the medium, since I knew it was all honey when I put it on.
2hives
10-24-2005, 01:21 PM
Mitch, sorry, I said "Michael" on my last reply. Thanks for your help.
Michael Bush
10-24-2005, 01:51 PM
My guess is they quite rearing brood and possibly chewed out the brood they had. That's what mine did mostly a month ago. It varies some from hive to hive.
2hives
10-24-2005, 02:03 PM
So, Michael, one hive would do this, but the one next to it would not? Hives in the same yard would shut down at different times, even though the weather, honey stores, etc. are the same?
It maybe that the bees in that hive have just decided to get ready for winter. My OB hive has shut down brood production. They are simply not allowing the queen any place to lay. I have outdoor hives in a similar condition while the hive next door still has brood. The cappings maybe just a general cleanup (if it isn't pollen).
Michael Bush
10-24-2005, 02:52 PM
>So, Michael, one hive would do this, but the one next to it would not?
Yes.
>Hives in the same yard would shut down at different times, even though the weather, honey stores, etc. are the same?
Yes. In my observation, it's a combination of the lenght of the days, the genetics, the state the hive was in and just some arbtrary decision the bees make. An example of state, for instance, a small cluster might spend more time rearing brood trying to get up to strength where a strong hive might quite rearing brood because they have enough bees for a winter cluster. An example of genetics, the Italians tend to keep rearing brood when the rest have quit. The Carni's are still rearing brood when my ferals have quit.
2hives
10-24-2005, 03:01 PM
Thanks to all. I will plan to place a frame of eggs, young larva, in the broodless hive, just in case. Can't hurt, right?
Michael Bush
10-24-2005, 04:41 PM
Probably won't hurt.
Dave W
10-25-2005, 11:21 AM
2hives . . .
>Also, I installed Api-life Var in both hives, inserted sticky boards below the screened bottoms. The next day, I see pieces of brood cappings . . .
What color is an Api-Life VAR wafer?
I will plan to place a frame of eggs, young larva, in the broodless hive, just in case. Can't hurt, right? I just did the same thing to two of my hives where I didn't see a queen or brood, but they ignored the eggs. They must have a young queen.
Michael Bush
10-26-2005, 09:23 AM
They probably just shut down brood rearing because of the time of year.