Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: monkeyfish on April 09, 2005, 04:04:55 pm

Title: Brooding over the lack of Brood!
Post by: monkeyfish on April 09, 2005, 04:04:55 pm

(Bee) Seasons Greetings,

I've just inspected my single hive and reversed boxes and done some cleanup... bees are flying and collecting pollen.. all appears well except I see no brood??! Spotted the queen but apparently 'she aint' in the mood'.

I had a swarm last August and am not sure which queen flew the coop then.  Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
~Scott

Title: Brooding over the lack of Brood!
Post by: Horns Pure Honey on April 09, 2005, 05:59:46 pm

Well either she is getting back into the cycle slowly, she has no sperm left, or she is old and worn out. You could wait a while and see if she starts again but she already should have. Either they will start new queen cells or you could order a new queen. I myself would be looking for a new queen to be sent to me. bye :)

Title: Brooding over the lack of Brood!
Post by: Robo on April 09, 2005, 07:12:16 pm

You need to requeen as soon as possible.   You should have multiple frames of brood by this time.  At this point even if you do requeen, chances are your hive will peak after the spring flow.  Just hope you can save them and they build up strong and there is a good Fall flow.

Title: Brooding over the lack of Brood!
Post by: Michael Bush on April 10, 2005, 11:07:49 am

I've seen bees that can't raise brood, put in a smaller box and then they can or boost them with some emerging brood and a frame of young bees shaken in and they can.  They have to have a certain amount bees to warm and control the environment around the brood.  I will ofte put a struggling cluster in a five frame brood box.