Need help please

[olevet]

I started 2 hives in the early spring. One is growing great already expanded to the second Deep box and working it great
The other has only drawn out about 1/2 of the 1st Brood box and seems to be staying at that level
Queen appears to be laying and I can see no sign of mites .
Any ideas?

[avesterfelt]

It is hard to say without some more information. There are a lot of factors involved and we would need more information to give a better assessment.

Are you feeding sugar water? If so what ratio? Are you using 10 frame equip? Did you put these in as a package or nuc? What type of foundation are you using? How’s the bloom out there?

And any other information you can give will help get a better answer.

[olevet]

Both hives are the same, Been feeding sugar water 1;1
10 frame package bees Italian
Same foundation in both from Walter co.

Was just out lookin and it seems the queen is'nt laying like she should
Watched her for a good minuter or 2 and never once layed.

Edited to add , The second hive is about 2 weeks behind the 1st one.

[Tangelo1106]

I'm having the same problem. It's been a couple months and still not a full drawn medium and doesn't seem like a lot of brood. I am curious how to help increase brood production. Sorry to hijack your thread Olevet

[olevet]

Not a Prob my friend. aint a Hijack if its on the same subject.

Im beginning to think I got a lazy Queen

[jadell]

Add a couple of frames of capped brood from the strong hive.

[avesterfelt]

You could try the brood idea; however for me it has never been a successful venture. If the queen is no good then all you are doing is adding to a work force that is temporary. Some will say it stimulates the queen to lay better, but I have never seen this happen.

I would say if you can get a new queen, do so. I keep a couple of nucs in every yard just for these type of reasons, I can requeen today and let the nuc make a new one without losing production. Trying to save a poor queen is a waste of time and energy. Kill her and replace with one that has a better work ethic.

You could just squish her and add a frame of eggs from your strong hive; however this will set the hive back even further. And you have to mark that frame and destroy any queen cells from that form on the other frames. (you don’t want the same gene pool)

How fast are they taking down the sugar water? If I feed a nuc (I mean at least 4 frames with brood and bees and only 1 storage frame) they will take a qt a day, if they don’t I add a little (fresh) thyme to the mix and they will take it then, every time. (this also keeps the mixture from molding so fast) The basic thought here is that I want drawn comb so I feed them so much they have no where to store it and they draw comb. Once they have the comb drawn, I take away all the feed. Now they have comb drawn and no nectar to fill with, so the queen ends up with a lot of room to lay. This lets me achieve what I want by using what they naturally do to my advantage.

The other thing you can do to encourage them to build is to put a empty frame between 2 drawn frames. I do this in combination with the above stated and it moves things along faster. I would not suggest checker boarding the whole hive until they have at least a whole box filled out.

Hope this helps you get them working. But the short story is keep feeding, do some minor manipulation, and get a queen that is prolific.

[olevet]

Thanks avester, Have a new Queen coming, they are not taking the syrup sugar water very fast.

[avesterfelt]

Most likely not enough bees to drain it down and take care of the rest of the hive.

I hope this will help you and feel free to PM me at anytime and I would be happy to help.

[olevet]

think you are right. seems to be barely holding their own, the strong hive takes down a qt a day at least

Im sure I will have a ton of nOOb questions over time
thanks for the help and Offer of more