>Once I saw the queen cells, I stopped putting in frames with open brood and eggs. It took my putting several frames of eggs in over a month or so to get new queens started. One of the hives had a laying worker and the other had a non-laying queen which I did not find for a while so they were not starting queens until the pinched the non-laying queen. Even though the nectar flow stopped quite a while ago, the robbing did not start until they both had new young queens, but they were not laying yet. I have always heard that queenless hives tend to get robbed when the nectar flow slows. I am wondering if it is not that queenless hives get robbed, but that hives without open brood get robbed.
Any weak hive can get robbed, but I have noticed when I make a hive queenless the robbing often starts within hours. So I don't think it's just open brood, but it is possible that contributes too.
Any weak hive can get robbed, but I have noticed when I make a hive queenless the robbing often starts within hours. So I don't think it's just open brood, but it is possible that contributes too.