James -

Thanks for your response.  Here are the answers you wished.


> One bit of information Larry could have supplied would have been whether both
> of his
> colonies were started this spring.

These were both overwintered colonies with 2 year old queens, but I visit them
only sporadically, so I don't follow their progress closely. The queen was not
marked, so she may have been superseded.

>  I would also ask Larry to observe whether there is a queen retinue around the
> queen

There seemed to be no organization to the bees on the brood area.  The queen was
not well attended, but that is not unusual when disturbed by open the hive.  I
was struck by the fact that the nurse bees where not busy nursing as I would
normally see.

> whether they run off the comb or seem to be listless, whether they are quiet
> or noisy.

No great noise, but they were more excitable.  I use smoke only sparingly, but
they over reacted to just a little smoke.

>  maybe the brood is not producing the pheromone that triggers nurse bee
> feeding behavior)

Interesting, I didn't realize that the brood produced a pheromone to draw the
nurse bees to them.

> 5.  The queen's genetics is poor i.e.. from inbred stock.

This hive is in a very isolated area.  The four hives I keep there are likely
miles from any but feral colonies... and feral colonies are very scarce right
now.

An imported queen is on the agenda.

Larry Krengel
Marengo, IL  USA