[Dave Warren]

Inspected all 6 of my hives yesterday, 4 of which do not have a queen, nor any brood, 3 of these hives act normal, bees running in and out all day long, I thing I'm going to order 2 queens and see if the 3rd will develop their own.
There all over the hive, but noticed there putting honey in the brood frames, HUM!
I had 2 hives swarm last week.
Looking for responses.

 

[SRatcliff]

Four don't have a queen, and you're ordering 2 queens and letting the 3rd one raise its own? What about the 4th one? You could let the two that swarmed, raise their own and give queens to the other two.

Without queens, bees will still bring in pollen and nectar, but don't really draw new comb without a queen. When they have a laying queen, they will move/use that nectar in the brood comb.

 

[GaryG74]

The ones "without queens" may have virgins running around in the hive. They aren't much bigger than workers. The hives swarmed so there must have been queen cells. It takes about 7-10days for the virgin queen to emerge then mature, take a couple mating flights, and finally start laying eggs. Give them about two weeks before you order queens. If there are virgins in the hives your bought queens are dead meat. The workers usually backfill the brood nest with nectar till the virgin gets mated and is ready to lay.

 

[djei5]

+1 GaryG74