# No Brood - Only Honey!



## mtbe (May 28, 2009)

I have 3 top bar hives. 

I was out of country for a few weeks.

Neighbors let me know several swarms while I was away.

Last weekend, I opened one hive and saw brood and found the queen.

Just checked on them this afternoon. 

Every bar in all three hives is full of honey. No brood. I did not spend time looking for the queens.

I added a few bars in each of the brood area today.

Do I need to more thoroughly look for queens?

Do I need to remove the comb that has honey in it in the brood section and replace with empty bars?

Any idea what is going on and what I need to do?


----------



## Sam-Smith (Jul 26, 2009)

Wow every bar? How long are your hives? I would check for queens and put several bars to build up a broodnest section again, never seen bees do this on a large hive before.


----------



## mtbe (May 28, 2009)

Hives are 4' long


----------



## duck_nutt (Apr 27, 2010)

sounds like you need to harvest some honey!


----------



## 11x (May 14, 2009)

were there any queen cells? those swarms were proably out of your hives. it takes time for a virgin queen to harden,mate,and start laying


----------



## mtbe (May 28, 2009)

But with every cell with honey, where would a queen lay?

On a top bar hive, if they place honey in what was previously brood, how does that affect the taste/quality of the honey? Remember...with a TBH, the wax is crushed, so alot of what is in the wax gets in the honey.


----------



## FindlayBee (Aug 2, 2009)

Just kidding here.

It will taste like bee butts and elbows.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

From the time they swarm to having a laying queen is typically three weeks. A frame of brood is good insurance.


----------

