Hi!
I'm just coming through the winter with my first hive. they overwintered well, I thought. Today was finally nice, in the upper 60s and sunny. I went into the brood chamber looking for her highness. What I found concerned me. There are no eggs, and what little bit of brood I found were dead in their cells, and i saw one that looked like it had half way chewed through the capping and was dead with his tongue sticking out. I'm really afraid that it may be AFB, but I'm hoping that it's just brood that died during the last freeze we had a couple of weeks ago. I did find the queen, she was wandering around on the comb by herself with no attendants. Could she be a virgin? Could they have requeened over the winter? I saw a couple of what used to be supercedure cells, so is that a possibility? Can anyone tell me what AFB looks like? The field bees are bringing in pollen like crazy, which I thought meant there should be brood around.
Please ask me anything else you may need to know to help with this diagnosis. This was the best producing hive last year (I had two, one starved), and I hate to lose it!
Steve