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2 Questions

998 views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  jwcarlson 
#1 ·
1) Is it just me, or is it common for the bottom box to be fairly inactive?
2) I have a hive that swarmed in june, and I've tried twice to requeen, but to no avail. last effort included adding a frame of brood from another hive to calm them down, but 8 days after the release, no sign of laying. Should I wave the white flag?
 
#3 ·
No. if the bottom box is inactive, there is too much room in the hive.

At this stage of the game as Jw said the hive probably has a laying worker. No time to convert now, Shake the bees out and let them beg their way into your other hives. Just be sure you actually do not have a queen first. It could be that when you introduces the Queen a virgin was in the hive.
 
#7 ·
One of my triple deeps has brood in all three, but there are about five relatively empty combs in the bottom deep. The way I figure the fall flow will collapse the broodnest down on itself and force the queen and nurse bees into the bottom box where they should be clustered at the beginning of winter anyway. They are packing pollen in some of those frames, however... and they are all covered in bees doing whatever bees do to empty-ish combs.

Regarding the laying workers, tossing a caged queen in is a death sentence, unfortunately. Too late to salvage that colony at this time. Shake them out or let them dwindle. If they are good sized still, you might be able to get them to put up some honey this fall. But if they haven't had a queen since June I can't imagine there being too much left to work with.
 
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