1 good hive and 1 not so good

[skidmld]

Here is my problem. I have 2 hives, one has drawed the comb and filled 2 shallows and 2 mediums with honey,and working on the 3rd medium. The other hive has not even drawn comb in one super, much less filled it with honey. It started the year with 2 hive bodies and 2 shallow supers and they are full, but it hasn't progressed any futher. There seem to be plenty of bees, but not as many as the other hive. What can I do to get this hive going?

[Chef Isaac]

does it have a queen?

[Mitch]

I agree with Chief you may be queenless or have a bad queen in the slow hive.Do you find eggs or brood in the slow hive?Now you know the reason people tell you to get 2 hives to start so you can see the differance if some thing is wrong and you do sound like something is wrong.If one hive is queenless you can take a frame of eggs and have them make there own queen or you can order one.

[skidmld]

I haven't checked for a queen lately. I know that there was one at the first of April. I will check that out tomorrow, and you're right about having 2 hives. It is good advice.
Thanks
Larry

[skidmld]

I looked for the Queen today, but didn't find her or see any eggs. There is a lot of capped brood and some uncapped brood so I feel like there is a Queen there.
This hive has 2 shallow supers of fully capped honey above 2 brood boxes. The reason I haven't extracted this honey is because these supers were on the hives last fall when I medicated for mites and I am concerned about contamination. Should I take these supers off and put the empty supers of foundation right over the brood boxes, and what should I do about these 2 full supers.

[Michael Bush]

>There is a lot of capped brood and some uncapped brood so I feel like there is a Queen there.

I would not consider a LACK of capped brood and uncapped brood as evidence that there ISN'T a queen. But open brood is pretty good evidence there was at least a queen a few days ago. If they were superceding you would reach the point where there is NO capped or uncapped brood before the new queen would start to lay.

I'm not clear what you want to do with the hive? If you want them to use up the honey in the supers you can uncap it and put it back. Maybe they will consume the contaminated honey. Or maybe they'll just recap it. smile.gif You could keep it for winter feed, but then you have to keep the wax moths out of it by either freezing it and sealing it up or by leaving it on the hive for the bees to gaurd. You probably shouldn't have treated with the supers on.

Since I don't treat, I don't have those problems.

[skidmld]

Michael, the hive beside that one has drawn comb and filled 4 supers with honey, while this one hasn't even started working on either of the 2 supers that I have on them. I want them to produce as well as the other hive.
They just seem to be standing still while the other hive is charging ahead.
I think I will pull those filled supers and freeze them and use them for winter feed. I am going to try to avoid using any chemicals this year so i won't have that problem again.
Thanks to you and everyone for the replys.