Lots of bees, no brood

**Fyremedik** · 05-03-2011, 01:27 PM

Had a great 1 year old hive going, lots of brood, bees, pollen honey, rockin'. That was two weeks ago. Today, no brood, no larva, no eggs. everything else is there and the bees are a little more aggressive. I did notice several supercedure cells being built but they were empty. Re-Queen? divide up the empty foundation to some newer hives? or try to give them a comb of brood and let them figure it out?

**John_H** · 05-03-2011, 01:41 PM

Sounds like they lost their queen. I'd give them a frame of open brood and look back in a couple days to see if they started emergency queen cells.

**3pianists** · 05-03-2011, 03:08 PM

If there are no eggs or larvae, they won't be able to raise a queen. Especially at this time of year, and given that fact, I'd strongly suggest that you buy a queen and get her in there as soon as you can.

Good luck!

**fish_stix** · 05-03-2011, 03:44 PM

Give them a frame of eggs/young larva if you have them.

**Riverratbees** · 05-03-2011, 05:07 PM

Requeen sounds like the best option to me if you don't have frame full of eggs.

**Michael Bush** · 05-04-2011, 04:17 AM

Odds are they have a virgin queen. A frame of brood would resolve the issue either way in case they are queenless.

**Fyremedik** · 05-04-2011, 06:37 AM

Thanks for the replies. I am going to try to re-queen today. I'll let you know how it works out.

**Michael Bush** · 05-04-2011, 08:05 AM

If they kill her, and they probably will, then they have a virgin queen. If they don't, then they are probably queenless.

**dixiebeeco** · 05-04-2011, 11:08 AM

If there is no brood in the box this time of year, you probably have just experianced a swarm and either have a virgin queen or the new queen failed. You can either wait another week to see if the virgin is mated and starts to lay or you can put in a frame of brood and requeen ASAP if you want to keep the honey production going. New queen will be accepted more often with a frame of brood in the box rather than no brood at all.

**Fyremedik** · 05-04-2011, 07:38 PM

OK, Re-queening completed. The bees were not very aggressive, actually going about thier business as usual, not as frantic as yesterday. I will check back in 5 days to see if she was accepted and if I have eggs.