# queen laying again



## windfall (Dec 8, 2010)

caught the queen in my ob hive laying up a small patch of brood today. I couldn't see any that had hatched so either the workers are destroying the eggs (will they do that if they are not ready to brood?) or she just got started. I assume all the hives outside are at a different place, but neat to see things starting to happen again. It has been pretty boring in there for the past few months.
Very little pollen in the hive. I have not decided yet what to do about that.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

very cool. are you saying this is the first brood in a few months?


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## windfall (Dec 8, 2010)

thereabouts


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## drtoddh (Mar 31, 2013)

My queen just started about a week ago. No pollen left that I can see. I put a 1 inch strip of a pollen patty in yesterday.


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## windfall (Dec 8, 2010)

Again yesterday I saw her laying in the same area. It's only a 2" patch on both sides of the comb. I see eggs but nothing further yet which has me wondering if the workers are removing or destroying eggs. 
They are keeping that location quite warm, and are densely enough packed that it is hard to see into cells


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

They are propably faced with one or all of these three issues:

o not enough pollen
o too much ventilation
o not enough bees

I would give them a little pollen and reduce the amount of ventilation. If you get a warm day, you might shake some bees (without a queen) into an empty small box and put the outside tube up against a hole in the box so the bees can smell the hive and move in to boost the population inside. You could prop this box up, tape it to the tube, whatever it takes...


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

When I was at Arizona State, we had several large observation hives set up in the lab. I saw the same thing happen with those observation hives. It was interesting to see the queens lay a large patch of eggs, only for the workers to consume them. The patch covered 2/3rd's of the frame. I am not sure what the trigger was, but eventually the bees started raising the brood. It was about this time of year that it happened in Arizona too!


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## windfall (Dec 8, 2010)

I think that is what is happening here. Today again I saw fresh eggs through that patch, a slightly larger area than before. But still no larva.

I don't think it is a population issue And while they don't have much pollen, they do have some.
I think the queen is laying. But the colony does not want to brood up yet.

It's neat to see, but I doubt it reflects behavior in the hives outside. After all, the room they are in is a pretty steady 60+.

I wish I had cleaned the glass at the end of fall.


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## D Coates (Jan 6, 2006)

This has been the first year where my OB hive queen has kept laying a few eggs. All years but 2 it's been different unrelated queens. I've seen her laying and a week or so later capped cells. She works a little cluster about 2" in diameter right in the center of the population. That cluster always has a few capped cells that keep changing location indicating they are hatching and new ones are being raised.


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## windfall (Dec 8, 2010)

There is definitely no capped or open brood.
Yesterday I got a good look. Just eggs. Some cells with multiple eggs, and I saw one with quite a "pile" on the bottom.
Not sure what to make of that. There is no question this is the same queen that was in the colony all last season


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