Questions for my 3 hives

[Reagan Rozales]

Howdy,

Hive 1: I've had this hive 3 years now. I re-queened it last spring. When I opened it up last week, I only saw honey and pollen; the whole brood box was filled with honey - no brood or eggs. It has 1 brood box and 1 super. I was wondering if it needed another brood box before I add the super (so maybe they can get brood)? I couldn't find the queen so I'm not sure if she's still there. I'm thinking I might need to re-queen the hive again this year. Or perhaps it might be better to just split Hive 1 between hive 2 or 3. (I had a swarm on my fence a couple weeks ago, and I'm thinking it might have been my hive.) I've been feeding it 1:1 sugar water. Any opinions?

This is the 1st year for hives 2 and 3. I installed hive 2 and 3 last week and checked them both yesterday (Saturday). I'm also feeding them both 1:1 sugar water.

Hive 2: They have released the queen and I found her easily. They only have part of one frame with the comb built.

Hive 3: They released the queen but I couldn't find her. They hardly have any comb built.

I'm thinking I'll wait another 10 days before I check to see if there is any comb/brood built. Perhaps I'm rushing it a little. 2 years and it seems I've already for gotten the life cycle.

Thanks for any help/ideas,
Reagan Rozales
WCABA Secretary

[Rader Sidetrack]

Hive 1: ... I only saw honey and pollen; the whole brood box was filled with honey - no brood or eggs. It has 1 brood box and 1 super.

If there are no open cells, then there is/was no place for the queen to lay eggs. That is is a possible indication that a swarm occurred, and the queen likely left with the swarm. Look for the presence of queen cells, either capped, or opened ones that a virgin may have escaped from.

[mrqb]

like radar said you need to look for queen cells,if you have a virgin queen she probably hasn't started laying yet,if you confirm the hive is queenless why not just get a queen for that hive,since you cant give them a frame of eggs from another hive thats the easiest best choice u have.

[Reagan Rozales]

Thanks yall..

I did see a couple of closed queen cells, and I got rid of them. According to my club, our area has had African Honeybee issues, so I didn't want her to mate with any of those drones. I'll look into ordering a queen, again. Maybe I'll have better luck this time!

Oh and I ment to ask, when I re-queen, do you think I should put another medium brood box on it? (Leaving the first medium brood box for their winter supply - and taking off the super, of course.)

Reagan