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Help saving hive

2K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  trishbookworm 
#1 ·
Hi,

I split my one hive 5 weeks ago. I checked on both hives through their viewing windows after 2 weeks, they seemed fine, and then at 4 weeks. At 4 weeks I found the new hive, the split, doing great, but the original hive had been decimated by varroa. I would normally have caught this, but i have a baby in the house, so time to get up on the roof to go through the hives is very limited.
I treated the original hive for varroa, but the numbers are really low. To give you an idea, they’re gathered on only 4 bars/combs, and the comb is maybe half covered with bees on each one.
My question is, can i take brood from the split and put it in the original hive to try and get them to raise a new queen? Is this too much stress on the split? Will this even do anything at this point or is the hive a lost cause?
Thanks
 
#3 ·
Yes, if the nuc has two or three bars of eggs, larvae, and brood, you can give one to the original hive to boost numbers. If they lost their queen, they could make a new one. You need to treat both hives. The split has varroa too, since they came from the same hive.
 
#6 ·
Okay great. I transferred one yesterday, so I'll see how it goes.

Trish, thanks for all of the info. Since I was taking from a nuc there wasn't enough to take as many as you were saying. Thanks for explaining your process. What do you mean by "fly day"?
 
#5 ·
I would say 3 bars capped brood - ideally really dark cappings meaning they are just about to emerge - and only a few young larvae/eggs. Larvae/eggs are expensive to feed, and if they need to make a queen, just give them a bit to focus their energy on.

Keep in mind some of the transferred bees will fly back - in fact, if you grab honey bars, or bars without young larvae, a lot may fly back because they are older bees. I would not shake any bees into the weak hive, as the queen might go in too! Unless you see the queen and can tuck her bar aside.

So I would say 6 bars total, only 1 with a bit of larvae (thin like fingernail clippings), 4 with mature capped brood, covered with bees, but no queen.

Check back in 5 days into the strong hive - if you see queen cells, you took the queen. ;)

+1 to treat both hives now for mites. I really like OAV, but I had to drill 1" holes in the bottom of my solid top bars to get the vapor in there. Do not do oxalic acid dribble - it will kill larvae. Weak hive may eat it too. Try Apivar, in center of brood nest - I bet that would work well.

Oh, feed sugar syrup and pollen to weak hive. Avoid Honey bee Healthy or anything smelly - it may attract robbing.

Good luck.

I'll share my mite treatment approach - I aim for a "clean slate" when the hive is broodless. So in early Sept, mid Oct, early Nov, late Nov, and early Dec - I use OAV. I'm trying to catch any influx of mites from my bees going robbing, so I would probably not treat each of those times, but only after a "fly day" post Sept 15 - no more than 3 weeks between post-fly day treatments. That's when our bees go out and rob - after there is no more forage post frost, but weak hives dying from mites. :(

In CA, the pattern is different, and you may benefit from treating during a brood break midsummer instead. Again aiming for a clean slate. Talk to beeks around you who are effectively managing mites...there are nuggets of gold there that you can mine for.
 
#8 ·
Determined (assuming really) that it was varroa based on the fact that there was a lot of varroa on my bottom board (i have a screened bottom with a bottom board), as well as all the dead bees. Do you think it could be something else?
 
#9 ·
Whenever you make a split, one of the hives will have a virgin queen, and one will have the original queen. Sometimes the virgin doesn't make it back and then there are no more options for the hive. If your queenright hive is nearby then the other bees can drift over there, causing the population of the original location to decline.

To find out of the original/decimated hive even has a queen, you should look for eggs, of course. But also you can put a frame of open/milky brood into the weak hive - not the worm-looking brood. from the hive with the queen. Then if they start to make a queen cell, that tells you the virgin did not make it back.

Or maybe it was varroa - a longer broodless period means more pressure on your bees from the varroa feeding on the adults. Start treatment before funneling resources from your good hive to your weak one...oh and feeding the weaker hive could make a very big difference too.
 
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