noticed not a lot of bees not coming and going in 2 deep hive. thought something might have happened to it ,so I inspected sat and had lots of bees but no brood. a month ago I reversed deeps, top deep had lots of honey in outer frames with fair amount of brood in middle, bottom deep empty. now still have several frames of honey but no brood.
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How long have they been without brood? Based on the date of your original post, has it been 6+ weeks? Do you have other hives to borrow from? Even if you get a queen in there ASAP, you are still at least 3 more weeks out before you get any more workers. Depending on how many bees you have left, that may be too late.
yes I have 2 more hives.How long have they been without brood? Based on the date of your original post, has it been 6+ weeks? Do you have other hives to borrow from? Even if you get a queen in there ASAP, you are still at least 3 more weeks out before you get any more workers. Depending on how many bees you have left, that may be too late.
I would start feeding the hive a frame of brood per week / 3-4 weeks (fresh eggs and capped brood) from the other hive(s) (transfer the nurse bees with it as well) and also order a queen. Otherwise, you are risking a laying-worker hive in no time. This is far too long of a time frame for them to be without a queen and once the pheromones dissipate fully, laying workers will appear.
Also important to keep in mind: adding only a new queen with no brood frames will make it very hard for the hive to survive as it will lack a young bee population that needs to be present to take care of the many brood-related duties.
Lastly, a hive does not necessarily have a break in brood rearing once it makes its mind to swarm. So, the lack of brood, especially for such a long time, may well be due to no queen rather than a virgin queen. My last swarm came out of a hive that had 12 (!) frames of brood at the time it swarmed.
[Addendum; Edit Note: I realized that that this was an older question, once I replied to it. I will leave my reply stand as it may be useful to someone else finding themselves in the same situation].
Also important to keep in mind: adding only a new queen with no brood frames will make it very hard for the hive to survive as it will lack a young bee population that needs to be present to take care of the many brood-related duties.
Lastly, a hive does not necessarily have a break in brood rearing once it makes its mind to swarm. So, the lack of brood, especially for such a long time, may well be due to no queen rather than a virgin queen. My last swarm came out of a hive that had 12 (!) frames of brood at the time it swarmed.
[Addendum; Edit Note: I realized that that this was an older question, once I replied to it. I will leave my reply stand as it may be useful to someone else finding themselves in the same situation].
In my opinion your bees have passed the age where they will make their own queen. If you introduce a queen as has been said most will be dead before you get new bees.
I would combine them with my weakest hive and start a strong nuc at their old location. A good many of the flying bees will return and will give you a field force and the nurse bees and capped brood you put in will be your house bees.
You can let them raise their own or buy one, whatever you prefer.
In years past I would keep working with them until they all died and SHB or wax mothe took it over ruining the comb. Not any more, I combine them and get some young bees in their equipment.
They will probably overflow a nuc. You could probably put five frames of eggs, open brood with a frame or two of capped brood in a ten frame box. The returning workers will fill it would be my guess.
Woody Roberts
I would combine them with my weakest hive and start a strong nuc at their old location. A good many of the flying bees will return and will give you a field force and the nurse bees and capped brood you put in will be your house bees.
You can let them raise their own or buy one, whatever you prefer.
In years past I would keep working with them until they all died and SHB or wax mothe took it over ruining the comb. Not any more, I combine them and get some young bees in their equipment.
They will probably overflow a nuc. You could probably put five frames of eggs, open brood with a frame or two of capped brood in a ten frame box. The returning workers will fill it would be my guess.
Woody Roberts
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