no brood in hive

[Oliver Wieben]

I am a first year beekeeper and have enjoyed my new hobby very much.  I drove to my 2 hives yesterday to inspect them for a final time this year.

One hive looks pretty good to me, but the other hive has no capped or uncapped brood whatsoever. 

 

I know I had capped brood 2 weeks ago, Sept. 18th to be precise. At that time, I did not do a full inspection but took note of capped brood in the top box.

If my math is right, the queen stopped laying somewhen between August 28th and before Sept. 17th (just going off 3 week cycle for worker bees).   

Isn't this too early in the year for the queen to stop laying? 

I assume I lost my queen? 

If so, is there any chance that the hive raised a queen in time that has fertilized eggs?

In other words: is it worth waiting another week or so to check again for eggs?  

Or did this all happen so late in the year that I can take it as a given that the hive is doomed? 

If the latter is the case, what would be the best course of action?

I assume it is impossible to find a 'new' laying queen now?

Should I combine the hives?

 

Added information: the hive is not as strong as my other hive, but seems decent in size. The demeanor of the hive during inspection was similar to my prior inspections. However, I noticed that the bees did not take very much of the syrup I had offered. I used top feeders with 2 jars, a pint each. The bees had consumed only about 1/2 pint total in 5 days since the last feeding. Compared to my prior feeding and the consumption for the other hive (1 gallon in 5 days), I would have expected a larger consumption.

 

Thank you for any advice,

  Oliver   

[Matthew Hennek]

Oliver, she may have shut down laying but I have a handful of queens available if you need one. I don't do a lot of late season inspections so I'll let others chime in on recommendations.

[jeanne hansen]

It NOT too early for the queen to have stopped laying.  This is the time of year when, if the hive looked good previously, you just close it up and cross your fingers.  The queen is most likely in there.  No need to rock the boat.  If there are enough stores for winter, see what they can do.

Unless you are rich!  Then you can certainly pop another queen in there, they will fight it out, and let the strongest win.  It only costs you the price of a queen.

 

Thanks!
Jeanne Hansen
824 Jacobson Ave
Madison, WI 53714
608-244-5094

---

From: Matthew Hennek <matthew...@gmail.com>
To: madbees <mad...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 9, 2016 11:54 AM
Subject: [madbees] no brood in hive

Oliver, she may have shut down laying but I have a handful of queens available if you need one. I don't do a lot of late season inspections so I'll let others chime in on recommendations.

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