# Queenless?



## Jessies Nubians (Dec 28, 2004)

This is my first season of beekeeping and I have one hive (a spring package). I went to check the bees 11 days ago and found that they did not have much honey in the honey super (medium) so I commenced feeding them. I didn't look in the brood nest because I was in a hurry. 

Well, they ate 15 pounds of sugar (in a 1:1 solution) in 10 days so yesterday I decided to check them again and see how they were doing. This time I checked all three boxes (all three are 8-frame mediums) and realized that there was no brood except for one frame of capped worker brood surrounded by a little capped honey and a bit of pollen, and that the rest of the brood nest was full of honey. Six frames in the second box had honey and pollen on them and the other two were drawn out but no honey. The third box had two frames of capped honey and two frames partly drawn out but not much in them and four undrawn frames. 

So, my question is, is it normal for the queen to stop laying this time of year, or do y'all think the hive is queenless and I should requeen. There was no drone brood so I don't think there is a laying worker. Also, I was thinking about treating for varroa mites with Menthol this fall--however, I haven't noticed any mites. Should I treat anyway just in case they do have some? I don't want the mites to take over the hive this winter. Same thing with tracheal mites--I was going to use the organic Sucrocide. 

Sorry for such a long post and thank you for any help you can give me.


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

Yes, it is normal for her to stop laying. First, she slowed or quit because of the drought and nothing coming in as stores. Then fall came along and she slowed even more, preparing for winter.

I think you have your mites backward. menthol is for tracheal, sucrocide for varroa. Menthol for tracheal is fine, but I wouldn't treat for varroa without taking a mite count. Either a sugar roll or a sticky board count.


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## Jessies Nubians (Dec 28, 2004)

Thanks for reassuring me. And I did have the mites backwards--thanks for the advice!


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## jynxt (Apr 5, 2004)

We had noticed the queen's laying to be a bit slower than we were used to as well, but when we increased the sugar concentration in the syrup it went right on back up to normal and beyond! I don't think the queen believes that she needs to lay much when there isn't a lot of nectar coming in and as little rain as we have had around here the queen may just be thinking she needs to thin the hive population to conserve food or something.

We're more than happy to come by and give a hand (or an extra set of eyeballs) anytime you need us just let me know.


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## Jessies Nubians (Dec 28, 2004)

I know! And I still want to have y'all over but it seems like we're always busy and mom never has time to "meet" you on the phone or e-mail. Talk to you later, hopefully.


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

I've found that when one of our hives loses the queen, one of the workers almost invariably goes drone layer and that's easy to see. If there's just not a lot of brood, I'd look around to find the queen if I could. See if feeding stimulates her to lay again. It sounds like your hive may be fairly weak. Be sure to drop it down to a manageable level for winter, say one box high or so. I'm not really sure I'd keep them at 3 boxes right now, if they are as weak as they are without brood and all, but that's just me. 
Best of luck.


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## DaveMac (Jun 15, 2007)

A few weeks ago I noticed that our hive had a lot of dead bees on the landing and on the ground in front of the hive. I am use to seeing this when they kill off the drones for the winter. There seemed to be too many dead bees. I checked the brood box and the bees were active, but the super had nothing in it. About a week later, I noticed there was no bee activity. I checked the brood box and all the bees were dead and the frames were cleaned out. My wife freaked because both times, I checked without dressing out and on my way to work. Not bad for someone who has had some bad experiences with bees, eyes swollen shut. We have no ideal what happen, it does not fit CCS / CCD. I found a wasp nest under the box when I moved it. I was talking with some of the bee guild and they think the same as me, that it was raided by other bees. My wife feels that someone in the area used some type of poison that killed off the bees. Hope in the spring to set up 3 new hives and start fresh.


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## damoc (Jul 14, 2007)

davemac

could be they were robbed into starvation (were the bees dead with there
heads stuck in the cells) was there sticky wax buildup around entrance?

could be a mite problem inspect the front of the hive and look at the dead bees are there a lot of young bees are there bees dead with deformed wings?

could be pesticide but i believe this to be unlikely

If I was a gambling man i would put my money on mite problem have you
done any form of treatment organic or chems since last spring or fall?


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## DaveMac (Jun 15, 2007)

damoc
I only found 1 bee with a deformed wing. The dead bees were at the bottom of the hive or on the ground outside. No mites were seen on the sticky board. My wife did some organic treatments for mites. No young bees were noticed either. I only saw a couple of bees stuck in the cells. Even though I did not see any mites, I cannot rule this out. I still feel like it was pesticides, but have no proof. Wish us luck for the spring time still hope to start 3 new hives. Think about sitting them up in a different location also, have not had good luck with the present location. Had better luck when I had them in the back of the garden. I have had another small patch of land cleared to set up a small pasture, and am thinking about the back side of this area with the hives spread out some.
Thanks for the information.


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