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Observation Hive Question

3K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  Boardrida20 
#1 ·
This may not be the proper place to post but I have a observation hive that's 2 deeps and a med in upstate NY. I had gotten it going well and ended up pulling the queen for another hive and replacing a frame with a QC cell on it.
The queen emerged and was mated and laying w/in 14 days. She laid all frames fully but after they emerged she seems to not be laying in any predictable pattern.. We started a golden rod flow as the first round of her laying was emerging. They back filled 80% of the cells she had laid in. Population seems to be ok but as the new ones emerged a lot of the old ones died out as there was a brood break so the populations dwindled some.

I see her lay but it seems like the workers remove the eggs possibly to back fill? Plenty of nectar and there was a lot of pollen that seems to have been consumed by the newly emerged bees. They are not using it for brood rearing however.

Is there something wrong with the queen or could it be a lack of pollen so she has stooped laying? I'm not sure what my options are I can give them a partial patty but dont want SHB's to get a foot hold. I think the population needs to be greater for the winter months to come. Will they reorganize and she will start laying again?

Any thoughts would be helpfull. My full sized hives have definatly slowed on the laying but not completely like this hive.

-Pete
 
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#3 ·
A protein (pollen) starved hive will cannibalize eggs and younger larvae. If there's no or minimal pollen in the hive you might try adding a small amount of a pollen patty frequently rather than a whole bunch at once.
 
#4 ·
My large 21 frame observation hive started back filling the brood frames when the goldenrod flow started as well. So, the queens laying pattern is scattered, but that is to be expected when they fill the cells as soon as they are empty. If they don't have pollen they may cannibalize the eggs, but if they are bringing pollen it the problem may just be a lack of places to lay. You can feed pollen sub to see if it helps. If you are worried about small hive beetles you can feed dry sub outside. I have placed a small bit of pollen patty on the screen where the feeder jar goes and then put the feeder jar back on. The bees consume it really quick that way. You can give them just enough to last a day so the beetles can't get going in it.
 
#5 ·
Thanks for the replies. The golden rod started and they were bringing in a lot of pollen. At the same time the bdood was emerging and I think they consumed it. I'll add some sub. There appears to be no larva or eggs or cells being capped at this point. Hopefully this will get them going again to brood up for the winter. Do you feed observations gives pollen all winter?
 
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