looking for a queen

I got an email back from John Zawislak with a couple of sources for a locally raised queen. I sent off an email to one,I'm waiting to hear back from him.

No brood

I looked in my hive today just for the purpose of looking for the queen. I still haven't seen her and I still have no brood. I sent an email to John Zawislak the state's head beekeeper to get his input. I'll keep you posted.

This can't be good

I opened up my hive today for the first time since my last post. Let me back up a bit. Last Monday I went to an organizational meeting for a new local beekeepers association. During the chit chat it was mentioned that we may have to feed our bees all winter because of it being so dry now that there isn't enough necter flow for the bees to feed on.

So, when I opened my hive I noticed the honey supers weren't full. In fact there was very little capped comb. When I got down to the bottom or brood super that's when it looked bad. There was no brood at all. It's almost like I've lost my queen. I'll need to ask around to see if this is common for these conditions or if I need to just start over next spring.

This is the kind of thing that being in a beekeepers association will help me.