Over the last few nights I've been particularly aware of a louder than usual humming coming from one of my hives - the larger and hotter of the 2. I just reaaranged that hive for winter and have internal pail feeders on both hives. I didn't really notice it during the day but it is quite loud at night now. I have only a small cleated down bottom entrance open at the moment and the bees visible around it are fanning vigourously -an amazing stream of air is coming out...
There was some robbing a few days ago but that has fallen off. I did observe at least one queen in that hive - the loud one - 2 weeks ago along with lots of larva and capped brood. On monday, when I re-structured that hive, I did see plenty of capped brood but didnt see any larva or eggs or a queen. The bees were extremely angry so I wasn't able to observe as acutely as I normally would have. Possibly queenless?