No Brood

[Pharmacyman]

I expected a hive with 1 deep and 2 mediums yesterday. The top box had capped honey, pollen, and nectar. The other two had splotchy capped honey. There were lots of bees in each box, but no brood anywhere. I have not looked closely for a queen yet. I see brood in the other hive. Does the fact that there is no brood mean I'm queenless, or are there other possibilities?

[Jacobs]

You should be seeing some brood by now. You may be queenless or possibly have a queen that has completely failed. If you had been queenless for a long time, I would almost expect to see multiple eggs in cells from laying workers. I have seen queens become drone layers over winter, but I can't recall seeing where a queen functioning in the fall came out of winter completely shutting down. If weather permits, you may want to take a frame with eggs and larvae from the queenright hive and put it in the questionable one. The brood pheromone may keep the hive from going laying worker and give them a shot at making a queen if they need one. I have yet to see drones flying but have seem a few in hives walking around on combs. If your bees attempt to make a queen, you may get lucky and have drones in your area and decent flight weather in the 20 or so days it will take for a queen to emerge and be ready to go on mating flights.

[reedyfork]

I would say you definitely have an issue (no queen or failed queen). Right now, every single one of my colonies has multiple frames of brood in all stages.

The two options I would consider would be to combine your two colonies now (to split later when drones are available), or do as Jacobs suggested and add a frame of eggs/brood. If nothing else, this stops any laying-worker situation from developing to buy you time. At best, they successfully make a new queen...

[hazmatinferno]

I have brood in my five colonies but have not seen drones emerge yet. During my last inspections (2/24) I saw some random capped drone cells amongst the capped worker cells. However, there were just a few. I did noticed that it appeared they were getting the open drone cells nice and polished. I am hopeful to check them again in a few days and see if the queens and starting to lay more drone brood.

[Pharmacyman]

Donna and I looked for a queen today in the hive without brood and did not see one. We took a frame of eggs and larvae from the queenright hive and placed it in the queenless hive, as you suggested. There were drone walking around and no sign of laying worker. I am feeding 1:1 and pollen patty (though we saw plenty of real pollen in that hive)

[hazmatinferno]

I am in the Colfax area and the drones in my colonies are on the way. I had one colony with a few drones walking around looking lost. That colony, along with all the others, also has a lot of capped drone brood. They are on the way.