When i opened up one of my hives today, i was sure it was queenless. there was no young brood anywhere to be seen. so, i opened up the next hive, hoping to take a frame of eggs for the queenless hive. now this second hive was full of capped queen cells, and also no young eggs or brood, so at least this one was requeening. i decided to leave the second hive alone to requeen itself. then i went back to the first hive, which was closed up except for the outer cover, and was about to put the outer cover on when i found the queen! she was walking around on inside of the outer cover! What she was doing there is beyond me, but i got her to walk up onto my hive tool and i let her walk off again onto the top bar of one of the frames. I've never seen a queen run so fast! she scurried back into that hive at lightning speed. my guess for the reason that the hive had no young brood is that the queen got between the inner and outer covers and couldnt find her way back, but the bees still got a whif of her pheromones, and therefor never built any queen cells. thus, a "queenless" hive without queen cells. I'll check in a few days to see if there are any eggs. justgojumpit
Could she be a virgin queen? If the hive superceded or swarmed, you might have a queen that was not ready to lay, yet. It takes about 2 weeks for a young queen to start laying. First, she spends a few days eating and exercizing. Then, she learns to fly. Then, there is the mating flights, and she often takes more than one. Then, a few days later, she begins laying.
Oh yes, that's right! (stupid.stupid.stupid.) I forgot that this hive balled its queen a little while back, so this must be the new queen, which would explain no brood or eggs. duh! but still, why would a queen be up between the covers of the hive? I could've squashed her if i hadn't seen her! then look at what the condition of the hive would've been. No queen, no eggs, no hope! Well, i guess that's why you pay atention~and that's why they say to keep records! I'm a bit more laissez faire about my beekeeping. I give the hives what they need now, and don't worry about the past. If the hive is strong and healthy, i'm happy. i'm sure those commerical beekeepers don't keep records of every hive, and they do quite well without them.
