[Lou N]

All,

Six days ago I created a walk-away split from a strong over wintered hive. I transferred four medium frames which contained capped broad, eggs, pollen, and some honey. I shook in what I though were sufficient nurse bees and moved the split about 150 yards away. I added four addition frames of drawn comb, put 1:1 sugar/water mix on the hive, and reduced the entrance.

I'm not seeing any flying/foraging activity at all. I quickly popped the top yesterday and there are bees on the four frames in the center.

The temps were in the low 70s to middle 60's during the day and in the 50's at night, but now we are experiencing rain and possibly a below freezing temp tonight.

I'm wondering if the lack of external activity means this split will fail or that too many of the nurse bees returned to the original hive? The original hive continues to thrive from what I can see. Obviously my timing weather wise wasn't great either.

So now what do you all recommend? Leave it alone for a few more weeks, recombine it with the original hive and try again later, continue to feed sugar water, or something else?

This is our third year with bees, but it has been a bit of a struggle year to year; not unexpected I know.

Thanks i advance,
Lou

 

[Lou N]

Steve,

Thanks for the reply. I did put some more 1:1 on today and I will keep an eye open for queen cells.

Lou

 

[Lou N]

Thank you both; next time I'll try moving the queen with the split. I have been feeding 1:1 syrup since I made the split, so we'll see how this goes in about three more weeks.

VT - we used to live in Fairfax, VT; I miss it, but I don't miss those long winters