Hello Greg and all Beefriends
 
I have 3 colonies for my own pleasure. Honey harvest is especially poor this
summer in Lithuania.
Price of honey (small sale) is 16 Litas/kg (4 USD). Welcome traders with
cheap honey.
 
This summer I was wiry busy with my job and couldn't look after my bees.
When I visited first my bees (in the very beginning of August) I found 2
hives swarmed. I think because of old queens (3 year) and rainy weather. The
third hive had one year queen and did not swarm. The swarmed hives had
neither capped honey nor almost a drop of nectar. I had to feed them with
sugar syrup all August.
 
I had a dream to try Buckfast and decided to give the queens to my swarmed
hives -  August was little bit late time. I got 2 mated queens - first line
hybrids. By the way, what is a price of a queen in your countries? Here
virgin - 15 Litas (3.75 USD), mated - 25Litas (6.25 USD).
 
Last Saturday I inspected my hives and noticed 3 combs of brood in every
young family and no brood nor eggs in elderly lady's hive.
 
As I remember the young queen is first to lay eggs in spring and last to
stop in autumn, and starving bees drop the drone larvae out, eat laid eggs.
Your young queens confirm the rule, Greg.
 
Good luck
 
Rimantas Zujus
Kaunas
LITHUANIA
 
e-mail : [log in to unmask]
http://www.online.lt/indexs.htm
55 Deg North, 24 Deg East
 
>
> >Greg Z  wrote:   While inspecting my 4 hives today I noticed that one of
my
>hives has no eggs or larve sized brood. >