Gentlepeople: I have been following the thread on the BEE-L that concerns observations of little brood in the brood nest with a certain amount of concern. I noticed in one of my stronger hives last weekend that there was no brood, no eggs, nothing. In its sister hive two feet away I found a "normal" mixture of eggs, larvae, and capped brood. Pulled Drone Brood from that hive revealed no varroa (I pulled about 15 drones from one place in the hive.) My first diagnosis was that I was queenless in the hive even though the hive was behaving normally. It wasn't overly aggressive (even after I dropped one of the brood chambers), bees were flying and taking advantage of the weather and they had put up 4 full medium supers of honey. The thread being discussed concerning little or no brood in hives with advanced varroa infestation has me concerned that my first diagnosis may be incorrect. Although I treated with Apistran this spring according to directions, the spring treatment was accomplished beginning Feb 18 and pulled on April 1. Last year varroa became an issue for me in August but I had treated through the month of April and early May. Is it possible that my early treament this year has given enough time for the varroa to resuge now rather than August? or... How can one tell the difference between simple(?) queenlessness and advanced varroa infestation? I intend to reinspect the broodless hive this weekend and will do the apistran test for varroa unless I see that all is normal. Could those of you who experienced crashes last year remember if you noticed any signs of broodlessness prior to the crash? Thanks to all of you. I have learned more in the past year "listening in" on the List than I had in the previous three years. Keep up the discussions! Mark Egloff [log in to unmask]