I was looking through my hive and noticed a significant downgrade in the number of brood in my frames. A few weeks ago, I had a very consistent brood pattern, with a lot of worker brood in the center of the frames. You might have seen my last post about drone brood where there is a photo of one of my old frames with a lot of drone brood. Anyways, the pattern is a lot more spotty than before, and I know this can be a sign of an older queen, and was wondering if I should re-queen the colony. I added a brood box two weeks ago and the bees have built out about four to five frames since. The patttern is something like this (not my own frame but a web image)
Replacing the queen can lead to bigger problems, especially if you only have one hive. I would leave it as it is. There might be other factors causing the spotty brood, such as a reduction in available nectar & pollen.
I recently had a colony in a 10 frame nuc with spotty brood, which included drone brood in worker comb. I was going to replace the queen once I got a round tu-it. I kept putting it off, until I recently inspected the hive to find an obvious beautiful new queen. The brood was beautiful looking. The colony obviously replaced her, which is what they do when a queen doesn’t perform to the colony’s expectations. You’ll see this towards the end of the video on Youtube “City of the Bees”
I don’t think that a colony will replace a queen because of a pollen & nectar dearth. It’s when plenty of pollen & nectar are available, with a strong work force, with the queen not being able to keep up to the colony, that she will be vulnerable to getting replaced.
I don’t change queens myself. I let the colonies make new ones with brood from a good performing colony. This is only when I can see that the queen is a dud, & that there is no other reason why the colony is struggling.
A second hive is a good guide, on account that you can compare the progress of each hive.
It would be good if you had a nearby beekeeper to compare notes with. Also can you take some more photos to share? On top of that, how has the weather been? Are bees able to forage, & if so, do they have access to plenty of pollen & nectar?
The weather’s been very sunny, and a few flowers are in bloom. I know the bees have access to honey in their frames, so I don’t think hunger is an issue. However, the bees have totally stopped building comb in the second brood box, and there’s almost nothing up there in the frames. Is there a chance I should remove the second brood box and try and get the bees more concentrated? Unforunately, I don’t have any photos at this moment, but for a general picture all the frames on the second brood box are either empty or have 10-15 brood cells, usually just on one side. On the bottom box there are maybe 2 frames with 50 brood cells at most, only on one side. There are two frames with a lot of bee bread, but otherwise empty. In the flow hive super, the frames are about 4/9 of the way filled up, and I always see some bees up there. I’ve also seen dying bees walking around the hive, and I’d say there are 10 a day easily. They all die with their tongues sticking out it seems.
According to what I have read, dead bees with their tounges sticking out is an indication of poisoning (usually because of pesticides). Do you live in a rural place with lots of farms; they might be using pesticides.
Going by your description of the brood, it sounds like you don’t have a queen to replace. I would remove the Flow super & second brood box, then concentrate on fixing the colony. The first thing I would do then is give the colony a frame of brood in all stages, as long as it contains some worker eggs. Then see if the colony wants to raise a new queen.
If you find that the colony does have a queen, then you can replace her.
On the other hand, the colony could have swarmed. If so, there could be a brood break before the new queen starts laying.
The remaining brood could be drones that are the last to emerge, which you’ll see after all the workers have emerged, if you happen to inspect the frames during that period.
I’d follow @JeffH’s advice and be very curious about the additional, ‘insult to injury’ possibility of poisoning as @Xxx_Xxx points out from nearby Ag or even homeowner application. The latter type can be prone to applying carelessly during flowering.
I believe your colony swarmed at least once, leaving it queenless. You haven’t said anything about open brood or eggs that would mean a mated queen had been there recently.
I live near a pretty big suburb, and I know people have pretty large gardens there. If what you’re saying is applicable to my bees, then perhaps they’re coming in contact with pesticides laid down by the gardeners people have.
I’ll remove the super and second box tommorow and try what you’re saying. My best chance at getting an open frame of brood will be from the beekeeper down my street, and if he’s open to it then I’ll ask him for a look too. I have noticed open brood in the frames, but they are not super plentiful. Most of them are orientated correctly, but I’ve noticed one or two who are tipped on the side of the cell.
I’ll definitely look into the pesticides possibility. The homeowners near me are definitely more concerned about having nice looking flowers than healthy pollinators, so I’ll check that ASAP.
