Hi, I’m new to bee keeping and my hive was installed in January this year.
I’ve just done a brood inspection and only one frame appears to be half filled with capped brood in them. The rest of the hive is either empty or has a little honey in it.
I couldn’t find the queen and am wondering if this means my hive is queenless? I’ve also noticed that the honey in the super is reducing quickly.
Thanks for the advice
I am just a beginner too but hopefully this will be helpful: Are the brood drones or workers because if most (or all) of them are drones then that might mean you might have laying a workers (a good indication that the your hive is queenless). It would also be a good idea to take a look at the eggs; if there are numerous cells with more than 1 egg then you probably have laying workers.
No, they look like worker cells
Hmm, I quite puzzled now too, sorry I could not have been of any help
I appreciate your advice. Thanks
Hi Salva, I think a good idea would be to post a photo of the brood. You can tell by the cappings, whether the brood in worker comb is workers or drones. Plus, with drone brood in worker cells, the bees have to raise cells in order to accommodate the extra size of the drones. The cappings will be domed instead of slightly convexed, as in worker brood.
Hi Salva,
I’m not sure what’s going on in your hive, but being winter, it’s not a great time to be doing inspections. If you have to get in there, you would want to be quick as the bees won’t be able to recapture their warmth. If there’s still honey in there, I would leave it until a (relatively) warm day. If or when the honey’s gone you’ll need to start feeding them.