A nuc, really a split with caged California Carniolan queen, I purchased and hived April 1st has a problem. I think it may be chalk brood. Few of the original capped cells have emerged, now some seven weeks later. This hive came with a loose virgin, a DOA caged queen, balled the first replacement queen, and is now on its fourth queen. The workers are overwhelmed in just uncapping and clearing very dead dry little larvae. One gift frame of brood has kept the hive alive. The newest queen is barely laying, a result of the lack of open comb and bees to cover it (?). I understand requeening is the common fix for this, but as I requeened most recently two weeks ago and no progress has been made, I'm looking for other options. Keep feeding this hive frames of capped brood? Replace the infected frames with drawn comb? Do I trash the comb or let a stronger hive clean it up. The current hive is stalled in growth, and our main flow is 2-3 weeks away. Just keeping it alive for build up over summer is the main goal now. Or bite the bullet, shake it out and cut my losses? They were fed syrup to help get them established, and although top vented, the heavy split and moisture was obviously a factor.
