I had some beehives at a location for six years, they were doing well the first few years but the last few years they haven't been producing nor losing honey. This year has been different though, they're eating more than they're producing, so I decided to move the hives to a better location.
One hive there was a hive that I collected from a beeswarm, either 8 months or 16 months ago I can't quite recall. I decided to open up this hive and to my surprise, I couldn't find any eggs! I then assumed that the hive didn't have a queen, so I went looking for eggs in other hives to find to give them to this hive, to try and save the colony by giving them an ability to make a new queen. To my shock, having looked at three other hives, I still couldn't find any eggs! I looked at the brood chamber and the box above the brood chamber, in the centre of the hive and I couldn't find any eggs!
I was perplexed. I decided to open up the hive again that I was seeking eggs for, and then I stumbled upon the queen as I was doing so. I took some photos, and circled the queen:
https://postimg.cc/gallery/ScMmYJbI see now that it was a mistake to assume that no eggs meant no queen.
I'm concerned for this hive, it's very low on bees and well, everything, and here in Australia we're going into winter. This looks like it might be the coldest winter in Australia for quite some time, there's been a few nights where it's gotten a few degrees below the freezing point, which is unusual for this time of year, that usually happens at the peak of winter and doesn't happen every year.
I'd appreciate some advice. Should I feed these bees some sugar? I did have a super on top of this box but it's empty and I think I should remove it to help keep them warm. Should I be concerned about my other hives not having eggs as well? The other hives have a decent amount of bees, and some brood, just no sign of eggs being laid.
