# What do you make of these pictures?



## txsteele (Nov 19, 2014)

I am a new beekeeper so I'm not sure what to do with my hive. Two days ago, my hive was functioning just fine. Bees going out foraging and returning with nectar. There were 20ish bees on the landing at any one time and everything seemed fine. 

Yesterday I went in to remove frames of honey for harvest. The top two suppers were full but as I continued down, I noticed the two brood boxes were full of honey also and no brood. At this point the girls were getting down right hostile so I didn't look long but I didn't see the queen. 

I buttoned everything up and when I came home from work, this is what I found???? Bees covering the front entrance and the rear top entrance. 

What might be going on here? Could the hive be Queen less?


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## RonTgottagoat (Feb 27, 2014)

From what I've heard that's normal. My bees do that as well I heard it was due to hive temp. The guy I got mine from said they do that


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

Just a guess but. You took honey-bees moved to the outside. You took the insulation out of the attic and now the house is too hot to stay in so I'm going out on the porch.If we only had a whole house fan!Lift the telescopic cover and stick a rock or corn cob under it so they get better ventilation,just like a whole house fan would do.

Wade


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## Buffy in Dallas (May 10, 2002)

txsteele said:


> I noticed the two brood boxes were full of honey also and no brood. At this point the girls were getting down right hostile so I didn't look long but I didn't see the queen.


No brood. That's a problem. Sounds like they are honey bound. Take the honey out of the brood boxes and give them new frames for the queen to lay on and look for the queen again. If you can't find one, I would order one. (am I right to assume this is your only hive)


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Major backfilling of the brood nest area with honey is a symptom of queenlessness. Aggressiveness is also another indicator. No brood.....you are queenless. This needs to remedied as soon as possible.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

Everything you describe is exactly how I discovered my queen less hive this year. 
Even now that I've got a laying queen back in it, I'm still having to regularly shuffle frames to get them to build comb for her to lay in, and move the honey out of the way.


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## txsteele (Nov 19, 2014)

I went back into my hive that was honey bound to see what the status was. This is what I found in the lower two boxes. Every frame (20 total) were infested to one degree or another with SHB larvae. I still think the hive is queen less because there was zero brood. Now only the top two boxes are being used because the frames were just starting to be drawn out. I have queen on order. 

This is after freezing them.


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Your hive is queenless. The bees are not motivated to strongly defend their hive because they are hopeless. Also there are not enough bees to adequately patrol and defend the hive.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

I once had a hive infested with moths.

I froze enough combs- some of which had honey in them- to fill a new, fresh box box, and the freezing killed the moths. Then I put the box where the old hive was so that the workers would come home to clean frames with honey in them, and I shook the young bees out in front of the new hive. 

Mind, I had a queen. I have NO! idea if this would work with a queenless hive!

I also set the brood into another box with some bees to tend to them, and after the brood hatched I did the same freezing etc again and, as I recall, I gave them a frame with eggs in them. I ended up with a couple of little hives with no moths in them.


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