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Bear and my bees

981 views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  crofter 
#1 ·
Need to hear some advice on what has happened, this may be long so bear with me!
I got my first hives this year, I purchased 2 nucs around the May 24th weekend. Both hives were doing quite well until a bear wrestled its way through our electric fence and did a number on the hives, this happened near the end of June. One hive wasnt in that bad of shape because the bear jammed it in between the garden fence and the electric fence. The other was scattered everywhere... bees and frames all over the bee yard. I was able to put together both of the hives and I left them for about 10 days and went back to check on them.
What I found when I returned was one hive was filled with 75% of the bees and the other had the other 25%. The larger hive had a queen but the smaller one did not. I did notice on July 8th that there were 3 queen cells in the small hive and on the 12th of July they were empty, so there is a queen now in the smaller hive.
What I have been doing is taking frames of brood out of the large hive ( which has 3 brood boxes ) and transplating them into the small hive to help out, I also have been feeding the bees every once and a while. The small hive is struggling, it has around 6 semi full deep frames and very little brood ( the new queen hasnt started laying ) and I am concerned about the time of the year and if this hive will make it throught the winter.
Should I let the small hive do its thing and see how the new queen fixes the hive? Should I combine the two hives? I am in need of advice, this is my first year of beekeeping and I really need some help!!

Thanks!
 
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#2 ·
Keeping both queens working will produce the most bees and get the most comb drawn out. If you wish to combine later you can. In the meantime keep the most options open. I think you should have nearly two months of honey making yet in your location.
 
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