[Bee de la Prairie]

Silly newbie insisted on having only one hive. Queen gets weak and egg production drops dramatically. By the time I recieved a new queen the hive is pretty weak with only maybe a couple thousand bees. I also bought another, strong hive from someone locally. My question is, should I take a frame or two of brood with nurse bees from the strong hive and put in the weak, now queen right, hive to help with the new queens brood and strengthen the hive?

 

[mathesonequip]

probably a good idea. if its that weak, 2 or 3 if the new one is real strong.

 

[Tenbears]

if a hive has only a few thousand bees total, figuring about half or more to be foragers depending on how long the queen has been failing. then there are only enough bees to cover a single frame. although it is possible for that number to grow into a sustainable hive it will be slow as the queen can only lay as many eggs as there are bees to cover. being in la. they can do so before winter concerns. as where they could not in Northern latitudes.

With that said I personally do not like to have a hive struggle. and never allow a hive to diminish below 4 frames of bees. 4 solid frames of brood with a strong queen can become an overflowing 10 frame deep in 6 weeks. I guess what I am saying is if you have the resources add 3 frames of capped brood to the hive if you have them, if not all capped then what you can spare will work. you will be surprised how the hive will then flourish.

 

[Bee de la Prairie]

if a hive has only a few thousand bees total, figuring about half or more to be foragers depending on how long the queen has been failing. then there are only enough bees to cover a single frame. although it is possible for that number to grow into a sustainable hive it will be slow as the queen can only lay as many eggs as there are bees to cover. being in la. they can do so before winter concerns. as where they could not in Northern latitudes.

With that said I personally do not like to have a hive struggle. and never allow a hive to diminish below 4 frames of bees. 4 solid frames of brood with a strong queen can become an overflowing 10 frame deep in 6 weeks. I guess what I am saying is if you have the resources add 3 frames of capped brood to the hive if you have them, if not all capped then what you can spare will work. you will be surprised how the hive will then flourish.

Should I have any concerns with the nurse bees coming in with the new brood frames "getting along" with the bees currently in the weak hive?

 

[mathesonequip]

they will get along but the foragers will tend to drift back to the original hive if it is close by. put a leafy branch over across the entrance to promote reorientation.

 

[Tenbears]

Mathesonequip is correct bees all get along the only time there are problems is when bees try to take something out of the hive. Perfect strangers are allowed to bring pollen and nectar in. the nurse bees as well as foragers on frames seem not to notice they have been moves into a different hive, and go about their routine. As stated the forager often return to their parent hive forcing reorientation sometimes helps some but because the parent hive in where it has always been, the engrained response usually overrides the new orientation. If you feel you need to bolster the forager forces, and it is not to inconvenient. move the parent hive to the nuc location, and the nuc to the parent location. the returning foragers will go to the nuc, giving it a heck of a boost.