I am also a new beekeeper and have the same problem here in Manitoba. There are no eggs or brood in one hive, but the hive seems to be operating 'normally'. I installed packages in both hives on May 5. I have ordered a new queen from Bee Maid in Winnipeg. They have a shipment of Hawaiin queens arriving on Wednesday, June 4. Now all I have to do is find the current queen to kill her off (if she even exists). Bee Maid will ship out queens. Their web page is http://www.beemaid.com/manitoba/manitoba.html. Can anyone say why the workers wouldn't lay eggs if the queen isn't? Warren Otto Lorette, MB --------- From: Stiphane Blanchard To: BEE-L Subject: Trouble! Date: Monday, June 02, 1997 11:25AM Hi Bee-Listers, Thanks for the info you are sending all the time. This morning, I opened my hives to feed them. They are taking that syrup in a very fast way! Unfortunetely though, one of them appeared to be queenless. No brood, and no visible queen. I'm just a beginner and could be mistaken but I saw a lot of capped brood in the other hive. Interestingly, about three weeks ago I had seen brood in both hives but just a very few. What do you think I should do? I don't think there is any queen available yet in this part of the world(Canada). If I put one on top of the other would that help? Could I even try to put the quuen in the bottom with no brood and than the brood in the top with a queen excluder and try to requeen that part or would that make both of them too weak? Thanks in advance.