Queen laying very few eggs?

[Bonnie Botkins]

Will the queen reduce how many eggs she lays during a dearth?

[BSAChris]

Hi Bonnie,
I am a new beekeeper, so someone with much more experience will pipe in - but, I have read here and elsewhere that the queen will reduce the egg laying until the workers (or magic) communicate back that the pollen or nectar harvest is on again.

Chris

[Adrian Quiney WI]

Some of it depends upon the queen's genetics. Italian type queens tend not to slow down, whereas Russian and Carniolan types do.

[Bonnie Botkins]

This is a hive of bees with northern survivor/feral genetics, went into our early spring strong, but the weather has been questionable for about a month or 6 weeks with lots of rain. I was trying to hold off on feeding them (I was hoping for a honey harvest), but inspected yesterday and they had almost no stores and very little brood. No supercedure cells, so I'm guessing the queen is slacking off till the flow is on again. I broke down and put some syrup in a feeder. Oh well, no honey but wouldn't be getting any if they starved.