Week 9, eighth hive check

Neither hive has a laying queen! I have no idea why. I have no idea what happened!  🙁

June 18, 2016
I added a new second year queen to Hive 1 seven days ago. The plug was gone and the cage was empty. Box 2 had lots of capped honey, nectar and pollen. No eggs or larva. Box one had small patches of brood, capped honey, nectar and pollen. No eggs or larva. Where the brood nest should be, the cells were clear, open and empty. I did not see the queen. The top box still looked strong, the bottom box not so much.

Hive 2 had stores of capped honey, nectar and pollen. The frames in Box 2 are drawing out nicely. The inner four frames are getting heavy and full, with comb building continuing on the outer frames. I did not see any eggs in either box. I saw few larva and they were dry. There did not appear to be any royal jelly. Spotty patches of brood. I did see the queen. She was on the outer edge of the frame and did not have any bees around her. Last week I found a queen cell. Maybe the original queen is gone and she is an unmated queen. If so, why did the colony superseded the original queen?

It’s certainly disappointing! Now I need to figure out what’s the next step.

Hive 2 Stats
Did not see eggs
Few larva, all dry
Spotty brood
Saw lots of pollen
Box 2
Bees on all frames.  Frames 4-8 getting heavy with honey
Box 1
Saw queen
Did not seem heavily populated
Reinstalled plastic screen board

Hive 1 Stats
Did not see queen
Did not see eggs
Did not see larva
Saw very little capped brood
Box 2 was heavy with honey, nectar and pollen
Honey super: Bees on all ten frames, no comb yet
Reinstalled plastic screen board