I am a newbe this year and have a situation with my hive. I apologize if these topics have been brought up in other posts, I am just obsessing a little now & need some reassurance. Basically, I discovered my queen 3 days ago dead outside my hive after noticing about 20-30 bees in a ball on the ground covering her. I immediately inspected my hive and discovered two capped supercedure cells and two of the same that were opened and no eggs present anywhere. At this point I am planning on letting nature take its course and have them make their own queen. Is this the right thing to do? And at what point should I switch and go with the store bought re-queen option if I find no eggs in my hive? I am afraid of my population tanking. I started this hive April 7th, it is now June 30th, so far the hive has been doing excellent, population is booming, lots of activity. I did notice very early on that there were supercedure cells in the hive so I had a clue that maybe they weren’t liking my queen although she sure has populated the hive well up to this point…
My other question is, what do I do, if anything at this point about a honey bound hive - if I indeed have one? I am thinking I might as my hive currently has no new eggs (I verified this), very few uncapped larva, and < 8% (out of total drawn comb) capped brood present, ~ 70% drawn comb with most of this with nectar/capped honey, and a current strong nectar flow going on at my location. Once my hive is queen-right will they make room for brood, or do I need to give them some? I have a 10 frame, 2 brood box hive currently.