Greetings All,
     First, I want to thank everyone that contributes information to
this list.  Since I am new, this has been a great source of
information for me.  Keep it up.
     I read a post today, that has got me wondering (yep, dangerous I
know).  I  live in the St. Louis area, and we had a couple of cold
spells back in early October.  I opened my hives after these cold
spells to remove strips.  I didnt have much time to check to see if
the colonies were queenright, so I checked for brood. Of my four
hives, 3 lacked any brood or eggs, and the 4th had only a little
brood, and no eggs.  Two to three weeks earlier, all hives were
queenright, and a few days later, I went back into one of the
broodless hives and located the queen.  The queens in these hives  are
unmarked, and have always been really shy.
     Is it safe to assume that there were queens in the other two
broodless hives, and they had just shut down because of the cold?  The
weather warmed after the cold spells.  Would the queen begin to lay
brood again at that time, or will she wait till spring? The other two
broodless hives were Buckfast queens.  Thanks all for your help!
 
Scott Moser
Moser's Apiary
Cedar Hill, MO.
 
 
 
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