Something I haven't seen before.

[Perry]

I have an overwintered nuc that is dwindling. I can tell by the dimishing number of bees, the shrinking of the capped brood, chilled brood further out on the edges, etc.
It is queenright, I can see her, and the brood she is laying is worker. There are now only about 4 dozen bees left in there with her.
What I am seeing though, is that there are many cells within that brood pattern that have 2 or even 3 eggs in them.
If I was guessing, I would say that she is just desperate to lay and keeps laying in the only area that the few remaining bees can manage. These eggs are all positioned correctly, in the bottom of the cells.
This is a queen Adam and I grafted last year from one of my best hives, so I didn't want to give up on her. I went into another hive and pulled 2 frames of capped brood and bees (1 frame had emerging bees) and dropped them in, and shook bees from 2 other open brood frames during the height of the day. I waited a few minutes and then looked and found her walking around on one of the new frames.
I guess time will tell.

[Jen]

Well if my rookie opinion counts... I sure hope she has enough pulled wax to lay

[apisbees]

As long as the brood starts to emerge soon, the queen will start laying in the cells the bees emerged from. It looks like a case of the rate of decline was exceeding the reproduction rate. This condition in the hive will cause more stress within the hive and can cause more problems that can also contribute to the decline. Hopefully adding these resources to the hive can get the hive building up and expanding. If you do not see a marked improvement with the addition of the added resources I would not add any more but consider her a queen with a problem and replace her.

[LazyBkpr]

As I was reading...  My gut was telling me to add some brood and bees, but you did that as I continued to read...
   Strange that they are dwindling like that. Possibly Nosema C?  Just trying t think of why they would dwindle faster than they could emerge...  Can't add anything to what Apis posted...

[tecumseh]

that would be my first guess also LazyBkpr but it seems like the wrong time of year.  I guess that with nosema c. you might should expect his at any time of the year or at least not see any clear up of this pathogen when you get a good dose of fresh nectar and pollen (that is....not like we use to expect with nosema a.).  most of the time I see some nosema c. here in the fall of the year and the hive is doing about like you describe with the added clue that with a frame feeder there is always a layer of dead bees in the feeder + just a small amount of feed that seems to never get removed < the only method I have found to administer fumidil in syrup to a hive in this condition successfully was an quart jar that sets into some of my top covers.

[LazyBkpr]

Noticing it when they can get out for cleansing flights isnt as easy...   HBH seems to help a little with them taking the syrup with fumadil in it.
   Interested to hear what the added brood does. If it was a new beek I would ask about mite levels, age of comb, and activity of the bees.. thinking it might be a garden nearby with pesticides being brought back, but its Perry... so pretty sure he would notice most other things.. N.C. would be one of those things hard to notice...
   Keep us informed Perry!