[garbear]

Last checked hive #1 --3weeks ago-- brood everywhere- extracted @ 100 #'s honey from 3 supers a week ago--- everything going great!! Inspected today, very few brood cells, no eggs or larva at all... no supersedure cells anywhere!! Intended to remove frame w young larva/eggs from hive #2.. Hive was very strong 2 weeks ago. Not now--- only several frames of capped brood... one small area of larva on 1 frame only. they may be able to produce queen, but iffy... Do not have another frame to transfer to hive 1.... Now what???? It's already the end of July... the bees are still collecting nectar and pollen of course..... will they survive the winter without a queen? or will they all be dead by then if lifespan is only @ 6 weeks?? I am perplexed!!! Help.....

 

[kenargo]

Without a queen they will not survive the winter.

Your next problem will be to stave off the creation of a lying worker; which can happen once there is no brood in the hive so time is not on your side at this point. The description itself sounds somewhat suspicious unless you accidentally killed the queen when removing honey boxes/frames but even then I'd expect the bees to have prepared an emergency queen had the original queen been killed.

Have you shopped around to see if you can purchase a queen and requeen the hives? Around here they are hard to come by but not impossible.

If you have other keeper friends you could barter for a frame of eggs in hope that the hives will raise a queen; time is close but not impossible to raise/mate and have hatching for over-winter bees.

 

[DanielD]

Be careful to make sure there's no queen. There could be other things happening. Were there swarms and now new queens that aren't laying yet? Is there a reason they stopped laying temporarily? I would be very sure about what's going on before making a panic move. A frame of eggs could reveal a lot if you could get them.

 

[Acebird]

Is your flow tapering off? Bees are smart there is no need to expand the population if the flow is gone. How about you took their honey? What would happen if you lost your job? You would taper off your spending, no?

 

[garbear]

hive 1 had 4 medium supers on it. had to keep adding supers as we went on several extended vacations and did not have adequate time to extract..... extracted 30 frames, those fully capped on both sides. the 2 deeps had stores of honey and pollen but not a larva to be seen--- they are still filling supers with honey now..

 

[devil dog]

I just ordered a queen today from R Weaver Apiaries in Navasota Texas. They ship on Monday and Tuesday. Order online tonight and they will probably ship tomorrow like mine.

 

[wcubed]

Chances are excellent that you are not queenless in either hive. Plenty of reasons why you could have no eggs or larvae at this point in the season, and be OK. Stay out of the hives in the early afternoon, to stay out of their way.
Walt

 

[CtyAcres]

garbear- Odds that you have a virgin queen running around in each hive are good. Be patient and wait about a week to 10 days.
You will probably see eggs and brood at that time. If not you can always order a queen. I raise queens and many times I've gone
in hunting only to find a virgin not yet mated.