[Mitch]

Ok it seems dave and i are seeing the same thing.Hives with no signs of a queen.No bood or eggs.i am not that great at finding the queen in a large hive.Ok the weather here has been warm durring the day 70s to mid 80S at night cool hight 40s to low 50s.I see 4 of 11 hive that have no brood and i can not find the queen.One of the 4 has capped queen cells.I see the drones are just starting to be thrown out. Could it be thay some of my bee have stopped laying for the season?Or just taking a break.3weeks ago all looked great.The other hives range from very little brood to alot for this time of year.all but the last few swarms i got have good winter stores Im just not sure what i am seeing. I find it had to believe Dave and i have so many queenless hive that looked good a few weeks ago.
Thanks Bob

 

[Michael Bush]

>Ok it seems dave and i are seeing the same thing.Hives with no signs of a queen.No bood or eggs.i am not that great at finding the queen in a large hive.Ok the weather here has been warm durring the day 70s to mid 80S at night cool hight 40s to low 50s.I see 4 of 11 hive that have no brood and i can not find the queen.

It is getting cold enough they may cut back on laying. My guess is if you searched very frame carefully you'll find just a few eggs, but not enough to be easy to find.

>One of the 4 has capped queen cells.

That one has something else going on. Up high, or down low? Maybe it's a supercedure or maybe it's going to cast off one of those strange small swarms people have been getting. I'm going to bet on a superceudre. But they could also be queenless and are resolving it themselves.

>I see the drones are just starting to be thrown out. Could it be thay some of my bee have stopped laying for the season?

Probably just cut way back.

>Or just taking a break.

Maybe.

>3weeks ago all looked great.The other hives range from very little brood to alot for this time of year.all but the last few swarms i got have good winter stores Im just not sure what i am seeing. I find it had to believe Dave and i have so many queenless hive that looked good a few weeks ago.
Thanks Bob

My best guess is you probably have a queen. Personally, I'd take my time and go through them with a fine toothed comb looking for eggs, while not expecting to find but a few, and looking for a queen. Study every frame carefully and I bet you find a queen or some eggs somewhere.

There is always the test of adding some brood, but as they throw out the drones they will be less inclined to try to raise a queen. Still I think they will try if they are queenless. Put in some eggs and brood from a hive that has some and see what happens. This is easier.

 

[BerkeyDavid]

Hi Bob
I tried to call you.
Do you have any capped brood in the questionable hives? The hive I requeened had only a very few capped drone brood. Also it had some queen cells, all empty.
Although I couldn't find any eggs in my strongest Lang, the brood pattern was still very tight and good, with lots of capped worker brood.
So I am thinking the shorter days and cool nights maybe shut down the laying like MB said.
Tomorrow I will go through my other Lang and try to figure out if I should requeen that one too.l It is getting real late to try it though.
Wow if you have capped queen cells they are making a queen so you may be ok with that one if it is supercedure like MB said!

david

[This message has been edited by BerkeyDavid (edited September 27, 2004).]

 

[Mitch]

Ido believe the one hive with queen cells is queenless.Alot of the queen cells were In the top deep but hanging down between the the bottom deep frams, so they were ruend when i took the hive apart but there are a few in the middl of the top deep.I have 3 weaker hives that i can join with any of the others. These weaker hives are late swarms and need to be joined.So ill jigure it out in the next few days.Got to do a better serch for the queen befor i do anything.I do not realy want to mess with the other hives that look good if i do not have to.
Dave i saw no capped brood in the hives im talking about i can try the egg deal but i have not looked for any eggs yet.Been to busy lookin for a queen.Im going to look today again.abetter sear may turn up a queen.
if not ill try some eggs.
Bob

 

[dtwilliamson]

I think the queens are just starting to cut way back. I went through my 3 hives last Sat and found my hives were full of bees. My hives are 2 deeps and 1 med in size. However, I couldn't find more than 3 frames of brood and eggs in each hive. Most of what I found was capped brood with only about 1 frame of eggs and larvae. I saw the queen in one and she looked healthy. Must just be that time of the year. The temps here in NW Indiana have been in the 70's during the day and low 50's to upper 40's at night. The drones started getting expelled last week. My goldenrod flow is over and they don't seem to be bringing in much nectar. Seems to me they are just starting to wind things down.

 

[Mitch]

Hi dtwilliamson
I think you are right i just never saw this befor.Didnt look on the map but you are strait west of me i am sure so we have bout the same weathe and flow coditions.the only thing blooming here is aster and some ods and ends.I kept some late swarms around just for a bit of insurance.but still have to do something with them as they have not buils up enogh winter stors>least 2 of the 3 have not.Im going to check out the hives closer and see if i can find a queen then join the last swaqrms with a queen if needed.Now we will find out how sharp my eyes are lol going blind and bald not a good thing.
Bob

 

[Darrel Wright]

Guys I am just a little further east of you not far from Cleveland. Our weather has been as you describe, and my hives are as well...though I didn't see any queen cells as of last week. VERY few eggs, like maybe 100 cells or so. Would have been easy to miss. Didn't see the queen, either, but she can be hard to find when you don't know where to look by the brood and egg pattern.

My guess would have to be that this is not an epidemic of queenlessness, just the queens settling in for the fun to come.

As far as supercedure or swarm cells, in my hives there do not appear to be any drones left in the hive now. I wouldn't want to be a queen looking for a date. Would there be much chance of successful mating now?

 

[Michael Bush]

I still have a few drones here, but a lot less than there were a few weeks ago.

 

[Mitch]

I know the drone are on there way out the last few days they are draging them out of the hives and you only see a few inside.I had seveal hive to look into yesterday so i was out in the yard for a while.It was 77 at the time so i get very hot and gave up st that point.I agree i could have missed a small patch of eggs of brood. i will spend the next coupls of days after work looking close on every fram for the queen or sings of her being there.

The only hive that realy worries me right now is the one with the queen cells like i said they were stuck down between thew bottom brood box Ie the cells were on the bottom of the top brrod box and those got cut off when i slid the top box off.

what would it hurt if i dont find the queen to join the small weak hives i have with them.I have 2 that i do not think have enough honey to make the winter anyways?

Thanks Bob

 

[Michael Bush]

>what would it hurt if i dont find the queen to join the small weak hives i have with them.I have 2 that i do not think have enough honey to make the winter anyways?

I'd combine the weak ones anyway if you want to make sure they make it through the winter.

 

[dtwilliamson]

I should have addressed the queen cells. I did have one of my hives with queen cells. They were on the bottom of the frame but they were in the top box of the hive. I assumed (maybe wrongly) that they were supercedure. I didn't notice them until I pulled a frame out and they were on the bottom of it. Destroyed about 4 of them as they were attached to the frames below. I noticed 3 cells that had already hatched so if it was supercedure I think they'll be ok. I did find a med frame of eggs in that hive so there is a queen. Hive was full of bees so I doubt they swarmed. I'm just gonna let them square it away themselves. We'll know in the Spring...

Dan

 

[Mitch]

Sounds just like what i have Dan.I am just thinking if the drone population is going down fast that a supercedure will not happen with no mateing drones available.

Will a Queenless hive survive the winter if it has plenty of winter honey?

No queen serching tonight it is raining

[This message has been edited by Mitch (edited September 28, 2004).]

 

[Michael Bush]

>Will a Queenless hive survive the winter if it has plenty of winter honey?

Probably not.

 

[Mitch]

Ok the good new is i have less hives that are broodless and or queenlees than i thought.Found only 2 that are with out brood and i could not find the queen.Both of these i joined with some weaker hives with queens.Now im in alot better shape.

Thanks guys for getting me thru the panic attack Bob