View Full Version : Help, I got a mess of brood
I have two brood boxes with two med on top. Bottom brood box has very little brood and a bunch of pollen and honey. Next box has some broad and little pollena nd honey. Two med boxes are full of everything from eggs, larve, capped brood, honey and pollen.
I have pulled 5 frames from brood boxes to make a Nuc and put 5 new frames in the second box. I would not find the queen but I am not surprised with that.
What do i need to do to get controll of this hive?
I think I should have made an even split instead of making a nuc
tecumseh
03-28-2008, 05:57 AM
first I would suggest you knock this hive back down to the bottom board...if necessary clean/scrape bottom board with hive tool of any collected winter trash. reorganize hive by first placing all the brood at the bottom of the stack and centered in the hive bodie(s) as much as possible. place feed to the outside of this 'central cluster' and the remaining feed and pollen above..... I typically like to place solid frames of pollen (little feed and no brood) to the extreme outsides of the box (againist the walls). the bees tend to brood upward and this gets them started at the bottom of the stack and at the very least, at the start of the seaon, this hive is not so top heavy and bottom light (which make it easier for the hive to tip or be blown over). on your 'next' inspection 1) the queen will typically be ambling around this 'central cluster' so you will know that you don't need to look over those various frames (or boxes) of nectar and pollen and 2) gives you a quicker glimpse of total brood which might sway you one way or the other in regards to the nuc vs split question.
I hope you added some feed (either in the frame or in a bottle) to that new nuc...i.e. it sounded like you made them with just brood????
In my experience it is not unusual for the queen to lay up high early in the season. It makes sense because it is much easier to warm the brood up there where the heat naturally goes. That said, you likely have too much room in the hive for this early in the season. Any more than the bees can control is too much. I would remove a box or two and consolidate the frames of brood and honey as much as possible.
they got a frame of pollen and one of honey.
I tried breaking down the hive and setting this as said. I wanted to switch the broad boxes but could not get the box off the bottom board and was also running out of time and heat/day light.
Also had more then 10 med frame with brood so I could not remove a box.
But they wintered well :)