Today's inspection

[Tia]

Today was the day I was planning on taking my last honey harvest for the year and to ready my girls for the cold months. We got a nice cool spell (in the 80's instead of the 90's), so I thought I'd take advantage: 1. You'll recall I had two weak hives which I had stacked one on top of the other that I was going to combine. Well chalk that up to forget about it. Both hives were full up of wax worms! I've never seen so many wax worms! And only a handful of bees in each hive. So I just moved them off the beeyard and pulled them apart so the birds can have a picnic. Question #1: since it's only a handful of bees it seems useless to put a new hive with new foundation where the old one stood. Will the few remaining bees just find their way to another hive or will they die "homeless" if I don't put another hive there? If I put a box there for them, can I go out tomorrow and just shake those bees into one of the other hives? Question #2: I know I should cut out the wax worm ridden foundation & throw it away and freeze the frames for 24 hours. What do I do with the boxes? Will just scraping them out suffice? Should I scrub them down with lye soap or something?
2. My two very strong hives from last year--one of which is a two-queen colony--are bursting with bees. They've got honey/pollen for themselves, but the only super honey I got was the two shallows that were located between the two colonies in the two queener (this is my second harvest, though--I've already taken off five gallons). Too, the brood in all three of these hives is spotty. I don't think it's a laying worker--it doesn't look like drone brood. Could it be the queens have just slowed down for the time being? In comparison, the two swarms I caught this year, which are also full of bees and have made only enough honey for themselves, have nice groups of brood--not lots & lots; just more than the other two. Do you see any need for concern?
Hope someone can back to me before dark to let me know if I should put a box out for the "homeless" bees.

[Michael Bush]

>Question #1: since it's only a handful of bees it seems useless to put a new hive with new foundation where the old one stood. Will the few remaining bees just find their way to another hive or will they die "homeless" if I don't put another hive there?

If there is another hive in the area they will move in there.

>If I put a box there for them, can I go out tomorrow and just shake those bees into one of the other hives?

I would not. It's less likely to cause fighting if they wander in on their own.

>Question #2: I know I should cut out the wax worm ridden foundation & throw it away and freeze the frames for 24 hours. What do I do with the boxes? Will just scraping them out suffice?

That's what I would do. Just scrape out the worms and webs.

>Should I scrub them down with lye soap or something?

No. It won't make any difference.

>2. My two very strong hives from last year--one of which is a two-queen colony--are bursting with bees. They've got honey/pollen for themselves, but the only super honey I got was the two shallows that were located between the two colonies in the two queener (this is my second harvest, though--I've already taken off five gallons).

Five gallons isn't a bad harvest. Are they still running two queens? The most productive way to run two queens is establish the two queens as early in the year as you can and eliminate one about two weeks before the honey flow so they don't spend so much of their resources rasing brood.

>Too, the brood in all three of these hives is spotty. I don't think it's a laying worker--it doesn't look like drone brood. Could it be the queens have just slowed down for the time being?

That would be my expectation this time of year.

>In comparison, the two swarms I caught this year, which are also full of bees and have made only enough honey for themselves, have nice groups of brood--not lots & lots; just more than the other two. Do you see any need for concern?

Swarms are always in a hurry to build up and are often far more productive becaue they are in a race with time.

>Hope someone can back to me before dark to let me know if I should put a box out for the "homeless" bees.

I wouldn't.

[Tia]

Michael, thanks for the reinforcement. Those were my gut instincts, so I went with them and then came in and found your answer. Can't believe I did everything right for once!

<Are they still running two queens? The most productive way to run two queens is establish the two queens as early in the year as you can and eliminate one about two weeks before the honey flow so they don't spend so much of their resources rasing brood.> This confuses me. I see you're in Nebraska, so your season's different from here in NC. Temps rise above 50 about once or twice a week in January so "early in the year" and "honey flow" ar about the same time. Anyway, I didn't eliminate one (didn't know I was supposed to) and although I didn't see either of the queens, there was brood both above and below the excluders, so I'm assuming they're both still there. It's a really good hive--got 2 shallow supers off this hive at the end of June and two mediums today! It's the only hive that ever has a surplus for me. Right now they're looking a little confused that some of their space has been taken away. There's about three times as many bees as usual hanging out on the bottom board.