WHAT'S GOING ON?

[COLVIN]

ON JUNE SECOND A MADE A NUC AND PUT AS STATED ON FORUM A FRAME OF BROOD W/ EGGS, 1 POLLEN, 1 HONEY, 1 WITH CAPPED BROOD AND 2 FRAMES WITH FOUNDATION ONLY. ONE WEEK LATER I GO BACK & LOOK AND ALL BROOD IS GONE AND NO QUEEN CELLS STARTED. I HAD POSTED EARLY THAT I HAD SEEN BEES REMOVING PUPAE BUT DIDN'T CHECK IT UNTIL THE FOLLOWING 3 DAYS LATER. I SAID TO MY SELF, WELL THEN  I WILL GET ANOTHER FRAME OF BROOD W/EGGS AND PUT BACK INTO NUC HIVE. RIGHT?   GUESS WHAT. I OPENED EVERY HIVE (4 MORE & ALL I HAVE) AND NO BROOD IN ANY OF THEM. I SAW NO QUEENS AND NO BROOD. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ALL MY QUEENS?  I SAW SOME NEW DRAWN COMB BEGGINING TO START. I WILL CHECK AGAIN THIS THURSDAY TO SEE IF ANY SIGN OF QUEEN ACTIVITY. PLEASE SEE SOME QUESTIONS BELOW AND ADVISE WHAT TO I NEED TO DO IN THIS SITUATION. OUT OF 4 HIVES (3 DEEPS) AND ONE NUC I AM STALE MATED.

DO  WORKERS STILL DRAW COMB IF NO QUEEN?

DO THEY STILL GATHER HONEY & POLLEN WITH NO QUEEN?

DO QUEENS STOP LAYING DURING THE SUMMER THEN START BACK?

WHY HAS THE NUC NOT STARTED BUILDING QUEENS CELLS?

DO I NEED TO REQUEEN  (LIKE I HAVE BOUGHT 15 IN LAST 2 YEARS BUT DON'T GET MUCH MILEAGE OUT OF THEM BEFORE THEY ARE GONE OR REPLACED)


ANY SUGGESTIONS, PLEASE.

COLVIN

[Understudy]

DO  WORKERS STILL DRAW COMB IF NO QUEEN?

Yes

DO THEY STILL GATHER HONEY & POLLEN WITH NO QUEEN?

Yes

DO QUEENS STOP LAYING DURING THE SUMMER THEN START BACK?

No, not that I am aware of.

WHY HAS THE NUC NOT STARTED BUILDING QUEENS CELLS?

Because they don't have brood of the proper age.  

DO I NEED TO REQUEEN  (LIKE I HAVE BOUGHT 15 IN LAST 2 YEARS BUT DON'T GET MUCH MILEAGE OUT OF THEM BEFORE THEY ARE GONE OR REPLACED)


ANY SUGGESTIONS, PLEASE.

COLVIN

You probably need to requeen.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Brian D. Bray]

Wait on the requeening for a second and consider.   If your area is experiencing either a dearth or a drought it is possible that the queens will stop laying for a short period until the weather conditions change back to what is normal for your area.  
Dearth or drought triggers the same reaction in bees as the drop off of the honey flow in the fall does--time to stop laying eggs ( or so many) and top off the stores with what is still available.  This is a common survival response.
The best test would be to put a frame of brood into each hive and see what they hive does with the new eggs--do they build supercedure cells or just cap the brood.  If supercedure cells then you are queenless, if they just cap the brood you are in a idle queen sequence.

[Understudy]

Brisan brings up an excellent point I had not thought of. If the queen is at lull, then you will have no supercedure cells.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[COLVIN]

BUT I DON'T HAVE ANY BROOD TO MOVE FROM HIVE TO HIVE.   COLVIN

[TwT]

BUT I DON'T HAVE ANY BROOD TO MOVE FROM HIVE TO HIVE.   COLVIN

colvin, you have a few choices then, this is happening to all the hives so I still think the queens just stopped laying for now because we are in a dearth plus kinda dry weather wise, what I would do would be leave them alone for a few weeks, your queens could have just stopped laying for now or you could have a new young queen that has superseded the old queen in one or two hives, etc. but I wouldn't think it would happen to all your hives at the same time. you still have about 1 1/2 month's before fall flow to buy some queens if you need one or more..... I would wait and watch these hives for a few weeks just see what going on there, you could buy a queen or queens for the hives but if you have one in there your bought queens will be killed..... just watch the hives a few weeks and see what happens, while watching the hive look at every frame real close just to see if you can find a queen..... the main problem doing this will be if you have no queen at all now you could end up dealing with a laying worker situation...... its a toss up but not having any brood from another hive kinda has your hands tide, a frame of brood is the way I tell how my queen is doing or not doing in a hive that I cant find brood in.... someone else might have a few more options.... you could start feeding these hive to simulate a flow and see if this gets your queens going again, it work in the early spring month's... good luck