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Is something amiss here?

833 views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Brent Bean 
#1 ·
Here's the situation in a nutshell:

July 13: I take bees from a bee tree. Did not get queen. Bring some bees home with 5 frames of tied-in comb in a 6-frame nuc.

July 13-16: Activity in nuc, mostly cleaning out broken comb. Observe a few flying in with pollen.

July 17: Move the 5 tied-in frames into a 10-frame deep with 5 frames of drawn comb given to me by a friend. Observed that they have started to attach the comb. No queen cells.

July 19: Purchase a colony from the same friend, and move it to a location about 6 ft from the single super of tree-bees.

Ever since then I have not seen any bees around the single super. No one on the doorstep, no one coming and going. I peeked under the outer cover, and there are still live bees in there. Any idea what is happening? Are they being affected somehow by the new colony? Have I perhaps overcrowded them with the drawn comb mixed with the not-so-straight tied-in comb?

The new colony is 2 deeps and a shallow strong. I see activity around the entrances, although it looks like they are cleaning(?) the exterior of the box???

Hope I am not doing something wrong...
 
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#3 ·
If you didn’t transfer any brood the right age it will leave the bee tree hive hopeless queenless. You could transfer a frame of brood from the other hive make sure there is enough bees in the hive to care for the brood. Or you could just combine them and split them back out in the spring.
 
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