Inspecting some hives today. Most of my hives are made up of all medium supers. One currently has 5 supers - three I consider brood chambers and two honey supers. About a month ago, when the hive consisted of four supers total - the top super was almost full of honey so I added a super with frames and undrawn foundation below the top super - three bottom brood boxes, empty super, and full super on top. At that time, there was a lot of capped brood, eggs, etc in the bottom three hive bodies. Checked today - sporadic capped brood - not drones - in upper super - maybe 20 capped brood cells on each side of each frame that had been full of capped honey. Fourth super - the newest one, was about half drawn out and 1/3 full of honey - and no capped brood. Bottom three hive bodies had sporadic capped brood throughout - much like top - 20 or so capped cells over each frame face - spread out all over. When I put the new super on, and moved the full honey super to the top - did I carry queen up there with it? Queen gone and laying workers? Still a ton of bees, working strong. Saw several old queen cells. Any idea what is going on?
Queen or No?
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swarmed or queen got superceded, wait on the new queen to get mated and laying, give it about two weeks and check again for eggs and larva. Just say boxes, not supers when referring to the hive. Super(s) just implies where honey is stored, any box size can be a super.
Sounds as if you probably had a swarm at some point, or a supersedure that may not have gone right. You should see all kinds of eggs,larva, and capped brood. If you had a swarm your old queen went with it leaving Ripe Queen cells behind. You may have a virgin queen. How long of time period between the time you inserted your second honey super and now?
It has been about a month since I inserted the second honey super.Sounds as if you probably had a swarm at some point, or a supersedure that may not have gone right. You should see all kinds of eggs,larva, and capped brood. If you had a swarm your old queen went with it leaving Ripe Queen cells behind. You may have a virgin queen. How long of time period between the time you inserted your second honey super and now?
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Box .... and all will be well
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