My main apiary is just shy of 80 miles away.. during the spring and summer i am there every weekend during the flow..one good thing about this lockdown carry on is the roads have been dead and it has been a pleasure to travel..
Patrick wrote: ↑21 May 2020, 22:52Welcome to the Forum GWT.
You say you may have a problem seeing your bees for a while. Do you manage 7 day inspections normally or does life get in the way occasionally? It’s entirely reasonable.
The reason I ask is that the commonest cause of queenless ness this time of year is our good friend swarming. I note the top box was rammed with stores which may have meant they were good to go- it’s been very swarmy weather this year. If you miss a couple of weeks it is possible for cells to have been raised, the queen left and a virgin is now wandering about the hive. If all the remaining capped brood had emerged (at maybe a thousand or more a day) it quickly refills the hive with adult bees and seems unlikely at a glance to conceivably have swarmed.
Meanwhile, some worker bees very quickly remove all signs of the empty cell and others the virgin may have killed and we are left none the wiser anything happened.
It’s the fact you have empty polished cells suggests you already have a (non laying yet) queen in there. Commonly, a really hopelessly queenless colony will store nectar and pollen in the brood frames as they know there is no other use for it. Also some defensiveness is quite likely. A really hopelessly queenless colony can be a total shocker.
I wouldn’t be surprised if when you get to see them your test frame is all capped or emerged brood and, cross fingers, you find some eggs as well. Let us know what you find.