So, I happened to see swarm behavior 3/2/2023, the bees flew about 50 ft from the hive but then returned 30 minutes later! Then on 3/16/2023 again I saw the bees swarming but I couldn’t stay to watch where they went. Finally, we get a chance to inspect 3/28/2023 and find no capped brood, eggs, or larvae and couldn’t find a Queen!! There seemed to be bee bread and plenty of honey. The bees seemed calm, or maybe I’m just getting a bit more confident with them, they didn’t seem stressed at all.
What should I do?
Wait and see, re inspect in a week? Let nature take its course? The bees probably have it all under control?
Re-Queen? I checked some sources and a Queen won’t be available until after April 17! Can I wait that long? There will be no nurse bees left to take care of her or her new offspring.
I have no access, that I know of, to a frame of brood that I could add to the hive so they can make a new Queen if they are Queen less.
It possible from the timing that your queen was away on a mating flight or you have a small, recently mated queen that is smaller, so you didn’t notice her. Did you see any emerged queen cells?
You could give it another 10-14 days to see for sure if you have a successfully mated queen or you could find a frame of eggs and young open brood now from another hive (bee club?) and see if they make queen cells. These eggs and larvae will give the population a boost too.
How many bees are there? Is the populating pretty strong?
Yes we did see some queen cells, 2 open and 2 that looked quite small but were closed.
I’ll try and find a bee club, good suggestion!
I think there are a bit more than a 5 frame nuc maybe, hard to say. Not sure if they swarmed twice as we saw the population drop on 2 occasions.
Update: I was able to go in and check the hive yesterday after about 1 week of continous rain and I can gladly report the evidence of a queen! Lots of brood, larvae and eggs!!
The bees had it all under control after all!