# Observation hive question



## Brenton (Jun 24, 2010)

Hello all! I have a question about my observation hive. I stared it the first of Dec. from a weak nuk that I did not think would make it through the winter, the queen started laying eggs almost immediately and then 3 days later when I am expecting to see a small larva the cell is empty. I have seen the eggs but no uncapped brood. The hive is in the house near a window with a entrance, on warm days they forage and seem to do normal bee activities, but no growth. The hive is a 3 frame vertical observation hive 2 deep frames and a capped medium frame 2 frames are full of honey and pollen so I know they have ample supplies. Any ideas why they wont raise any brood?:scratch:


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## D Coates (Jan 6, 2006)

Are you really sure there aren't little larva in pools at the bottom of the cells. I have trouble seeing them in my OB hive until they are substantially larger and not so tranlucent. I assume you have other hives? If so you could try putting a frame of known eggs and various stage larva in there to see how this hive reacts to them. Or you could wait a few more days to see if the larva start showing up.


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## Brenton (Jun 24, 2010)

I thought so too at first but we are in the second week of Jan. and I have not had any brood develope and I have sat and watched the queen lay a egg and with a flash light I have seen the eggs, but nothing after. I thought it might be that she was a late supercedure that didnt mate and she was only laying drone eggs, but she is laying in the center of the frame not on the edges where the drone cells are. The only other thing I can think of is the time of year, maybe too early in the season to start a build up and the worker bees are just keeping the numbers at bay till the first bloom. I'm at a loss cause now is when I thought they would start building up.


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

I'm not very familiar with your area, so I'm not sure what is normal this time of year. I know for me the queen isn't laying more than a handful of eggs a week unless we feed pollen.

If your hive has ample honey and pollen, then the workers may be attempting to control the population. As a result, the workers may be eating the eggs instead of feeding them. Give them a couple more weeks to adapt to their new home with varying temps that they arn't used to, that is if you think they are strong enough to wait a few weeks.

Other than that, you can try giving them some pollen and/or a frame of young larvae to spark them up.


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## D Coates (Jan 6, 2006)

I've seen my queen laying eggs every once and a while for the past 2 weeks. The high today is 14 degrees. I can barely see them through the cluster and all I can see is a capped cell or two when I do see something. You should be getting at least a few brood.


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