REGARDING Re:No Brood in nuc Mary Sellhorn writes: "I started a nuc three weeks ago with a frame that had a queen cell on it and four brood frames with honey and pollen. I looked in about a week later and it looked like the queen had hatched. Today I looked in there and there are lots of bees but only a little tiny bit of sort of old looking brood. I looked very carefully for the queen and couldn't find one. What do you think? Should I order another queen or try to combine it with another hive? Or is it possible that the queen is small and I couldn't find her? If this is the case then why hasn't she laid any eggs yet?" It looks like the queen has been lost, very likely on a mating flight. It's sort of late to order another queen for this nuc - they may well not accept her. It would be better, in my opinion, to recombine this nuc with another hive, then order a queen for a new split made up with younger brood and young bees. Ted Fischer