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I'm a 2nd year beekeeper and towards the end of June I noticed one of my hives was queenless. I could not find the queen and more telling there were no eggs visible and the amount of brood was approaching zero and there were signs of trying to produce some queen cells. This was detected when I went to harvest my honey in late June.
Rather than relying on the queen cells to mature as I was going to be out of town a lot in the coming weeks I ordered a new marked & mated queen. I installed her on July 1st. On July 5th I verified she had been released and was present in the hive though there were still no signs of eggs.
Today on July 17th I visited the hive again and she was easily found and appears to be healthy & is moving around but still nary a sign of egg, larvae, or brood.
The hive looks to be in all other ways healthy though maybe it is my imagination but the number of bees looks to be dwindling. I spotted a few hive beetles but not many. There are no wax moths or other unusual pests. There is still a decent amount of honey in the brood box.
My configuration is a deep on the bottom and a medium above it. Above that I used a queen excluder and another medium and from this medium is where I took my honey. Everything is 10 frames.
Any idea why this queen has not layed and what advice do you have given that I have no brood at all and really no other healthy hive to add a frame of brood.
thanks
rick
Rather than relying on the queen cells to mature as I was going to be out of town a lot in the coming weeks I ordered a new marked & mated queen. I installed her on July 1st. On July 5th I verified she had been released and was present in the hive though there were still no signs of eggs.
Today on July 17th I visited the hive again and she was easily found and appears to be healthy & is moving around but still nary a sign of egg, larvae, or brood.
The hive looks to be in all other ways healthy though maybe it is my imagination but the number of bees looks to be dwindling. I spotted a few hive beetles but not many. There are no wax moths or other unusual pests. There is still a decent amount of honey in the brood box.
My configuration is a deep on the bottom and a medium above it. Above that I used a queen excluder and another medium and from this medium is where I took my honey. Everything is 10 frames.
Any idea why this queen has not layed and what advice do you have given that I have no brood at all and really no other healthy hive to add a frame of brood.
thanks
rick