Do they take a break?

[ZuniBee]

My hives were going very good with lots of brood and capped larva. I just checked all the hives two days ago and there is very little brood and mostly capped brood left. I looked in the empty comb, which was a lot, and did manage to see small eggs but nothing larger. I'm wondering if the queen will take a break if nectar is not comming in. It's hard for me to believe that all 5 hives that I checked replaced their queen and the virgin had to fly before laying eggs. They all seemed as if the queen didn't replenish eggs immediately upon hatching. The hives were extremely docile. I used smoke on the first one but they were so gentle I didn't use smoke after that. My son was in shorts and a tshirt and they didn't bother him at all.

[Kirk-o]

Bees are pretty smart they know what to do.Relax take it easy let them do there job I'm sure they are fine
kirk

[Michael Bush]

>I'm wondering if the queen will take a break if nectar is not comming in.

Some will.

> It's hard for me to believe that all 5 hives that I checked replaced their queen and the virgin had to fly before laying eggs.

Since Apistan and Checkmite have become the norm, this has now become the norm.

[Brian D. Bray]

I must say that what I'm seeing is a tendency to supercedure at the drop of a hat.  I figure I'm better than average with only 1 out of 4 packages superceding.  The thing is, though, that one of the hives that has not superceded should have.  Very Lethargic queen, she just sits on the comb barely moving when I open the hive and it is getting further and further behind the others.  I'll probably end up requeening that hive, but first I'll give it every chance to get with the program.

I honestly don't known if it is the fault of the queen or the fact that all 4 hives seem to be experiencing dearth like behavior during a bloom.  Ain't no sweet in dem flowers.  It's very hard to build up a hive when it's only bringing in enough to barely keep going.  We're having a  much more normal type of summer  here in the PNW weather wise, with the exception that there's no juice in the flowers.  It makes a person wonder if it is all the result of last years drought-like conditions.  It's been so long since we had a summer like last year that I can't remember it a nectar dearth followed an actual drought the following year.

[Kirk-o]

I just have wild swarms and bees from Dee Lusby and never treat and clean wax
boy oh Boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy has that saved me alot of grief

kirko