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  • From: Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] First Fall - Big problem?
  • Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 10:47:47 -0400 (EDT)

We would expect the queens to slow down at this time of year and I have been seeing many hives with very little capped brood.  I would be concerned if you did not see any eggs or open brood.  I expect that the hives are probably fine.  Seeing some eggs and open brood would be an indication that you still have a queen and they are simply responding to the environment and that everything is normal.  At this late stage I believe there is little we can do.  If you have a good population of bees, they have good food stores, and they have low mite pressure, you will just have to let everything play out and see where they land in March.
 
I have been looking at some hive scale data in my neck of the woods and the fall nectar flow was generally weak.  It was interesting to look at the data from dozens of hives.  Almost all of them gained weight on Sept 9, 12, 25, and 30 while losing weight on the other days.  Hives where lighter at the end of September than they were at the beginning.  I am curious to see what October data looks like.  The point of this story is:  Bees, particularly some races of bees, can be very responsive to environmental conditions.  If there are no resources coming in, no (or very little) brood will be reared. 
 
When we had the field day at your place we were able to look at one hive and assess your mite load (your other colony was not accepting visitors that day).  At that time I believe we determined that the mite pressure seemed under control at the moment but we pointed out that you had boat loads of capped brood.  I am wondering if you followed up with another sugar shake a few weeks later, what you found, and if you treated or not. Were you able to assess mite pressure in the other colony?  Can you give us some follow up on that?
 
Thanks!
 
Lewis
 

On October 22, 2014 at 3:24 PM John McPhaul <john.mcphaul AT gmail.com> wrote:
Like Blitz below I went in my 2 hives on Sunday and while both seem strong there was lots of honey but no capped brood.  After the first one I was worried but when the stronger of the two also had no brood I figured it was possible the queen stopped due to weather.  Being a newby with no frame of reference I’m asking if there always should be capped brood? 
 
Since there was no brood the varroa threat is at least the good news but can the girls survive the Winter without brood?  This bee keeping is more confusing than country directions and I’m not sure if I’ve gone too far and need to turn around!?!
 
Any comments as to the lack of brood would be much appreciated.
 
Thanks
John & Nina McPhaul
 
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2014 2:01 PM
Subject: [ocba] First Fall - Big problem?
 
Hi All,
 
I have two hives, started in spring from packages.  Went into the hives just now to check for varroa and treat if necessary.  First hive (so far been weakest) has about five frames of honey/pollen in top super, but no visible capped brood, larvae or eggs.  Bottom super also has a few frames of honey. Other hive has three frames of brood in various stages, nothing much going on in the bottom deep super.  Population in second hive is much more numerous and vigorous. 
 
I moved two frames with brood and larvae to the weaker hive.
 
Now I’m thinking that was a mistake.  Should I just combine the hives and get one through to the spring?  I’ve got both feeding 2:1 syrup now.  Have some time tomorrow in the middle of the day, so I can combine as suggested.
 
Thanks for any help.
 
Best,
Blitz
 
Jonathan Blitz
 
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