Queen or no Queen????

[annette]

OK here we go again. Checked into my 2 hives today and found my one hive appears queenless again.

The story goes like this:

They appeared to be queenless last October (no brood whatsoever) by November I found larva and closed them up for the winter

This Spring they appeared to be queenless once again as no sign of brood anywhere even though we were having warmer weather and the other hive was taking off like crazy. I introduced a frame of brood with open larvae and hopefully eggs in the hopes they wouldmake a queen if they needed one. They never made anything.

I went out and bought a caged, mated queen and it appeared that they killed her also (well found the 2 workers bees dead in the cage)
2 days later I found many,many bees orientating in front of the  hive which once again led me to believe they had a queen.

I thought all is well by this point. Until today!!!! I checked each and every frame in all 3 medium supers and not a sign of any brood anywhere. There is no brood in this hive, only pollen, honey - which they have eaten very little and many little bees.

So once again I gave them 2 frames of brood with open larvae in various sizes from my one strong hive. I will check in 4-5 days to see if they are making a queen. If not, then I will introduce yet another frame of open brood.

I do not want to give up on this hive, but I cannot figure out what is happening.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Annette

[Kathyp]

you might want to consider combining that hive with another for awhile.  if i had trusted my instincts about the hive i just lost, that would have been a smart move.  guess that's the one thing we can do that we can't go wrong on  :-)

[JP]

I like what you did. Wait and see, again.


...JP

[Michael Bush]

I'd give them a frame of open brood and check back in a week and see if there are queen cells.

[annette]

I'd give them a frame of open brood and check back in a week and see if there are queen cells.

I like what you did. Wait and see, again.


...JP

OK that is what I did, so I will check back next week and do the same once again.

Kathyp, I do not want to combine them with my good hive. I only have 2 hives and my other hive is doing, so, so well and has a great queen. I do not want to disrupt my one good hive.

I will just wait and see now.

Thanks for all the info
Annette