I did my normal check last night and for the first time ever I saw no eggs. I have capped brood, lots of stored honey, lots of bees, lots of pollen. no swarm cells or queen cells. I did not see the queen this particular time which isn’t totally strange. is this something to be concerned about yet? All summer it was eggs galore. Fall weather is here in central Indiana but the temps are still very nice.
With the temps dropping and winter approaching I would say its normal that the queen would slow down laying based on what they have going into the winter. Me personally I would like to see the queen to know for sure. I am sure others will weigh in on this too!
Often get a brood break in autumn but not if there are pollen stores.
Is there room for the queen to lay?
The bottom box is pretty empty. Maybe 1/2 the frames (4) have plenty of space. The top box is almost all capped honey.
last autumn one of my hives mysteriously went queenless. I could see no eggs, larvae or brood. Actually yhere was some brood- but only drones… I put in a frame of fresh brood with larvae so the bees could make a new queen but they didn’t. So I requeened and the new queen was accepted well.
Did you see any small larvae? Capped brood?
Hi Alexis, does sound a little worrying, did you see any larva? I am in the southern hemisphere and my queens lay all through the winter, but she can have a brood break. It happens. Check again in a few days time and check thoroughly, if you have a head torch or good light of some kind to get into those cells and look for eggs.
its spring here and I was late opening a hive I thought was doing well a couple of suburbs away, turns out they’re queenless and have been all winter, she must have died a few months back, the bees have filled all the brood cells with honey and pollen now, all wasted space. If they have enough food, they will get through the winter.
For me, I have now condensed the colony down to a Nuc box and am creating a new queen for them which should be ready in a couple of weeks. There’s always a workround.
1 Like
I saw a few but only a few larvae mostly capped brood. I can definitely check in a few days. Any chance this had something to do with my recent mite treatment? I used the strips of Apivar for the first time about 3 weeks back
More likely that it is related to the time of year. I bet your nights are getting quite cool, and the bees know that winter is on the way.
This is what I am hoping. All has been so great and fun for a first year. My next check I will look very carefully for the queen and possibly grab a light for egg checking
Update! On a much sunnier day I checked and this time found quite a bit of larvae AND eggs AND the Queen! And the pollen packing continues. Fall goldenrod is beautiful. Wow do I feel better now :)
1 Like
Thank you for the update. It is really good to hear what you found when you were able to inspect. 