Has anyone ever tried using resources from a deadout for a colony that is still going? Assuming I'm not concerned about transmission of disease?
I had 8 hives going into the winter. Two had fairly high might counts when I tested in September (had been acceptable when I tested several times previously in the season using an alcohol wash) and the mite counts didn't drop significantly after treatment with Formic Pro. Sure enough one of those colonies died fairly early on, while the other is still hanging on. The other 6 colonies also continue to survive. However when I weighed the hives going into the winter, and then again a week or so ago, one is notably lighter than the others, which has me thinking if it would be possible to transfer resources from the deadout into this colony to bolster their winter supply.
My initial thought was to transfer an entire super of honey from the deadout to the light colony, putting it at the very top, but then I remembered that I had used the mountain camp method, so that the honey super would have to sit on the shim, above the pile of sugar. My next thought was that I could add it to the bottom, just above the bottom board, or maybe even the middle, splitting the two deeps, but I have always heard that bees won't move down for food, and I don't want to risk splitting the cluster by breaking apart the boxes.
So my questions are, has anyone else ever tried doing something similar, and how was it accomplished? Or should I just forget the whole thing and if that light colony ends up needing to be fed, feed with candy or fondant or whatever other type of seasonally appropriate method is available?
I had 8 hives going into the winter. Two had fairly high might counts when I tested in September (had been acceptable when I tested several times previously in the season using an alcohol wash) and the mite counts didn't drop significantly after treatment with Formic Pro. Sure enough one of those colonies died fairly early on, while the other is still hanging on. The other 6 colonies also continue to survive. However when I weighed the hives going into the winter, and then again a week or so ago, one is notably lighter than the others, which has me thinking if it would be possible to transfer resources from the deadout into this colony to bolster their winter supply.
My initial thought was to transfer an entire super of honey from the deadout to the light colony, putting it at the very top, but then I remembered that I had used the mountain camp method, so that the honey super would have to sit on the shim, above the pile of sugar. My next thought was that I could add it to the bottom, just above the bottom board, or maybe even the middle, splitting the two deeps, but I have always heard that bees won't move down for food, and I don't want to risk splitting the cluster by breaking apart the boxes.
So my questions are, has anyone else ever tried doing something similar, and how was it accomplished? Or should I just forget the whole thing and if that light colony ends up needing to be fed, feed with candy or fondant or whatever other type of seasonally appropriate method is available?