No eggs being laid

[Bee Mary]

I am a first-year beekeeper and have a question about one of my hives. This was the stronger of the two hives I keep. The queen was a good layer and I would rotate the hive bodies about once a month to give her laying room in the upper brood chamber. I hadn't checked the brood chamber for a couple weeks, and today I opened it up and there are no larvae, capped or otherwise, anywhere that I can see. Lots of nectar and pollen being stored in the brood cells. This hive has put away one whole super, but has not built out anything on the second super (foundation only) for three weeks now. The bees are hanging out in there, but aren't doing anything. They have been very active (almost 90 bees a minute) bringing in pollen and nectar. I did not look for the queen; and only saw one small queen cell when I was examining the brood frames. Is she done laying? Is this normal this early for my part of the country? (about 30 miles from Canadian border as crow flies)

For comparison, my second hive was requeened about a month ago, and that queen is still laying eggs. This hive is less populous and has not done anything with its super (baited with one honey frame, but rest is foundation only).

Second question: how much honey will they need to make it through our winter?

Thanks for any insight you can provide...

[beehoppers]

Welcome to BeeSource!
Quickly move a frame with eggs from another hive (make sure you don't move that queen) to the brood nest of the eggless-broodless hive. Check in 24 hours to see if they have made queen cells. If they have, they are queenless and you should probably need to get a queen and introduce her soon. They need to get going before winter. If they don't make cells, they have it covered.
Swapping boxes around probably sets them back. They like to organize things a certain way and will spend time and energy doing that. It is hard for them to move pollen and they like to keep it next to brood. As they draw frames in the middle, move them to the edge before they are filled with much and move undrawn frames to the middle.
Don't know how much they will need for your winter but too much doesn't hurt.

[high rate of speed]

Sounds like the hive is queenless.
People have different views on how much winter storage a hive needs,and how long the winter is.A shallow box of honey is normally enough.Good luck.

[J-Bees]

""how much winter storage a hive needs""


The fellow I got my hives from said 1 quart was plenty to winter them, but to keep an eye on them in the spring when I get a real warm day check to see it they need more.

I plan on giving them lots more in frames.

[riverrat]

sounds like they may have swarmed. I would add a frame of eggs to see if they start a queen cell. If they dont there may be a virgin queen in the hive that hasn started laying

[Bee Mary]

Thanks Everyone for responding so quickly. It makes it easier that you all agree on what I should do! I will add a frame of eggs from my other hive tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes in a few days...

Mary

[dcross]

Also, there's really no need to reverse brood boxes as long as they are rearing brood in both. She'll move to the empty comb.