[wild-b]

I just put the last open brood frame into a hive without a queen. The hive is looking almost none existent and I'm not sure it's going to survive. There was no clue as to any queen cells being produced so if they don't produce a queen out of this frame I'm not sure what to do with the bees. I'm not going to keep taking from my other hives and give to this one. The others have queens with a lot of bees, but seem to be struggling also with the amount of storms and rain we've been having. Any suggestions on any of above?
Thanks
Mike

 

[Ravenseye]

Make sure the open brood has eggs. They'll need eggs to make a queen. If you're about out of resolve to get the colony up and running, just combine with another colony and call it a day. I have one right now that looks like it's headed in that direction. They wouldn't make their own queen.....I just introduced a store bought one.....and if that doesn't work out, it'll go on top of the hive right next to it separated by newspaper for a few days.

 

[Tenbears]

Make sure the open brood has eggs. They'll need eggs to make a queen.

That is not exactly accurate, But somehow I think you know that. Not to correct ravenseye. But more for a point of information. Bees do not start feeding prospective queens the additional royal jelly until the egg has hatched, they can and do actually make queen from larva between newly hatched and 48 hours old. with the poorer quality queens coming from the later due to the lower consumption of royal jelly. However: once a hive has become hopelessly queenless, they seem to resign themselves to that fact. and only the introduction of a mated queen can bring them around.

You may be to that point now, And may want to consider adding a bred queen, or combining the hives as Ravenseye stated. Good luck in your endeavors.

 

[wild-b]

I already tried a queen 4 weeks ago and they assasinated her so I started this 3 brood frame trial with no luck so far. How long should I wait after the 3rd frame to be seeing something. Then is it to late to try and introduce a new queen.

 

[Colobee]

If they are going to rear a new queen, it should be rather immediate. As mentioned above (inferred) there is only about a five day "window" for a new egg to become a "good" queen. If you are going to try requeening one more time, you'll likely need to provide her with a couple more frames of brood. As you mentioned - each additional frame of brood you take from your "good" hives is another frame that they would likely have been better off with than without, and you're to the point that you don't want to keep doing that ( nor would I).

Having seen all the time, money & effort you've put into this hive, I'm also inclined to agree that maybe it's time to consider combining it back to one of your other hives and move on with the three remaining. 3 out of 4 is commendable, under the circumstances.

 

[Ravenseye]

Yes, I should have been clearer. I was kind of thinking that if you could see eggs, you had a better chance of having them make a queen. Tenbears did a better and more accurate job describing the ideal situation. Thank you!

Adding brood frames never hurts and often helps. I usually try to select frames that have the youngest brood and I leave the nursebees on. Again, at some point, you just might decide to combine and focus your efforts on the other colonies.

 

[wild-b]

So to combine these two hives what is the best way? There was mention of newspaper and I take it that you lay a single layer of news paper between the 2 hive bodies. The one that I'm having trouble with is just a single deep with a bottom and the others have a second deep on.

 

[Ravenseye]

I would just lay a single sheet of newspaper over the top box of your strong hive and then place your weak hive over that. Top the whole thing off as you normally would and come back in a week or so to sort it out. You can cut the newspaper a bit to get them mixing sooner if you want. I've even combined them just by stacking the weak hive on top of the strong hive and letting the bees work it all out. Your call. It doesn't take long at all and when you get back into the hive you can figure out how much space they have versus how much they need.

 

[wild-b]

So I take it that I pull the bottom board off of the weak hive and then position on top of strong hive and they will work their way thru the paper. Do I need to make a top enterance on the weak hive, maybe wedging up one end of the top cover

 

[Ravenseye]

You can if you like. It's why I slice the paper sometimes. They usually don't take long to work their way through the paper and once they have a hole, they have access up and down.