Well, hive number one is on its way out. I went in yesterday and had to accept the bad news. I saw no queen or worker brood. There was scattered drone brood much of it in worker-sized cells. I looked for eggs to be 100% certain but could not see any. I did not take any pictures, but this is a good picture similar to what I saw in my hive.
I looked in one of my beekeeping books about what to do. If this happens early in the spring one can try to re-queen in a number of ways, but it is too late in the year for that. Franklin Carrier says in his "Keeping Bees" that one can combine the queenless hive with one of the strong hives. I would like to do that, but we are going to Massachusetts tomorrow and I won't be around to perform the necessary steps. I emailed Kathy Niven last night and she concurs that it is too late in the year to do anything and she does not recommend combining.
#1 had been my strongest hive, so I'm sad to see it go. At least its old queen lives on in #3 (remember I made a split) and she's doing well.
Today I put the escape board below the two supers and tomorrow, before leaving for the airport, I'll put the supers with all their honey in the garage.
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