Of my twenty five colonies in my home apiary  had brood (all were late
queens, mated in July)  three other had a tiny patch the rest had no brood
at all.

On uniting without paper, I three weeks ago united ten down  to five with no
fighting (I checked twice in the hour, all was fine)

Thanks Phil,

 

Was there a figure missing from line one?  Where are you located? When did you make this observation?  Can you put a name to your strain of bees?

 

It would be helpful if many other beekeepers looked and told so we can find out whether there is a pattern from which we can predict broodless periods.