Lots of bees, no capped honey, no brood...

[kspitze]

Tonight, I checked what had been my best (among three) hive a little less than a month ago. It had a lot of bees, many frames of capped honey, quite a bit of capped brood, larvae and eggs. Now there are a lot of bees but only about half a frame of capped honey, and no capped brood, larvae or eggs. It had been dry here (NW GA) until a couple of weeks ago, but we finally got some rain. Nothing much is blooming here, but I assume the goldenrod will be upon us soon. Is it possible that the queen simply stopped laying, waiting for honeyflow? This is only my 2nd year beekeeping.

[Gord]

Add a couple of frames of eggs/brood from another hive.
Sounds like your queen is gone.
Or look around for another queen...pronto.

[GLOCK]

I do beleave if there's a drought the queen will stop laying if the drought go's on for any amount of time.
You can do as GORD said and Add a couple of frames of eggs/brood from another hive but if they don't make queen cells then there's likely a queen.
I'd look for the queen.
Good luck.

[G'ville beek]

I am no expert, but I could play one on TV
The Italian Queens will keep on laying, maybe not as much as before a dearth, but if your Queen has or is one of the Carniolan x Italian hybrids then yes she will shut down, and only lay enough to keep her laying ability. I just went through this with one of the hybrids. After a few rains here in Ol Virginny, the pollen started coming in and yesterday she had what looked to be brood of all stages. My queen in that particular hive only laid a few, I would see from time to time one or two capped brood cells, and was thinking I may have lost the queen, and had a laying worker, But give em some sugar water, maybe a pollen sub patty and she may think that there is a flow and start producing little baby bees.
Now this may be a trait that not limited to the hybrid or the Carniolan, but I bet you have a queen, she just on vacation. Time for a frame search, like find Waldo, wee hoo!
Oh if you do have another hive, where you can get some capped brood, I would add them to help keep the population up, if you put any uncapped larvae, and eggs in they will try and supercede the queen, but what the hay, let them if they do, the queen will eliminate em, or you get a new queen and your queen was gone, but the bees will resolve it all if given the resources. Where's Waldo?

[tsmullins]

. Is it possible that the queen simply stopped laying, waiting for honeyflow?

Our local bees stop laying during dearths, including our late summer dearth. The lack of capped honey in your hive would be my big worry.

Shane

[Hokie Bee Daddy]

I had a similar situation about a month ago. I had plenty of bees, little honey, and no brood. I've seen this before though. If the hive gets to a point where they are dangerously low on honey (I think it is 10 pounds or less) the queen will shut down completely and you will swear you don't have a queen. Feed heavily and she will start back as soon as the stores are built enough.