New hive question.

[Ohio Patriot]

I am still a newbie, so please bear with me. :)

I will be installing 4 new hives, and I have 4 packages of bees coming this week. For a new hive, I usually start out with 1 deep and 10 new, plastic frames.

This year is a bit different. Due to two colonies that died over the winter, I now have 40 plastic frames that contain various degrees of comb, honey, pollen, etc.

For each new hive, should I use the frames with comb, honey, and pollen that I salvaged from the (now deceased) colonies? I would assume so. Out of the 10 frames in a hive, how many should be pollen? Honey? Should any of them be new (i.e. no comb)? Where should these frames go?


Thanks!

[Michael Bush]

A brood nest typically has pollen on the outside edges, honey inside of that and empty (drawn) comb for the queen to lay in inside that. If you have enough I'd fill one deep with all of that for each package. If you don't, then put in what you have and fill the rest with plastic foundation.

[Jesse]

If you know what the colonies died from - and you can't pass it on - go ahead and use those resources to give your packages a boost.

This is what I would do - take it for what it's worth:
I would put six frames in the center of each hive- two foundation on either side of those six. evenly distribute what you have between the honey and pollen as best you can, with some empty drawn comb.

you can save some of the drawn comb for splits later in the season - or for swarm traps.

It really doesn't matter what you do - any added resource is a bonus - just don't forget to continue to feed.

Jesse

[Bob Nelson]

I see several things to consider.

Before using the combs from deadouts be comfortable there is no American Foul Brood. There have also been precautions stated about using deadout combs and honey until the CCD thing is better understood. I have not heard of any documentation of ill effects as a result of doing so. I personally plan to utilize such combs in splits.

If you are shaking the bees in I would use as many of the drawn combs to fill out 10 in the box. Put the emptier and partially drawn in the middle. Room for queen to lay and capitalized on spring pollen and nectar flows for drawing comb.

If you are introducing packages by putting the package in hive and allowing bees to crawl out put in the better drawn combs with good feed. When you pull the package out in a week or 10 days slide the frames with bees on to center and put foundation on outside. A shot of feed at this time may be a help on drawing the foundation. This option allows you to have some drawn comb to put in second hive body when they are ready for that and will entice them up. Happy hive starting. Bob Nelson

[Ohio Patriot]

Thanks!

A lot of Ohio beekeepers had colonies die this year. We had an especially harsh winter. They had enough food... when I examined the hives a couple months ago, there were full frames with honey. The bees were head-first in cells. I scraped them to help rid the hive of bacteria.

[Michael Bush]

The bees will quickly clean up the dead bees with their heads in the cells.