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How should I help this hive?

1307 Views 4 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Beaver Dam, 
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Last year was the first year for this hive. Began with 3 lb package of italian bees. The queen died and I kept adding frames from my strong hive. I finally got a queen and put in the hive but they superseded her and finally had a great queen about six weeks before the fall. I am afraid there was not enough time to get enough young brood for the winter is my guess. Anyway they made it through the winter which surprised me. There is only a hand full of bees in that hive. I would say they could cover less than half of one side of deep frame. They have plenty of honey when I opened it in really warm weather.

Funny Story. I was looking for the queen and could not find her. I happened to look down at my leg and there she was on my leg. I went to grab her but she flew and I found her crawling on the other hive. I picked her up and put her back in the hive.
The hive has plenty of honey and some frames with pollen. But very few bees wander out on a warm day.
Should I add a frame of brood from the other hive? I am afraid of doing this because they might get chilled at night. What do you suggest? Will they more than likely make it on their own. Thanks.
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RayMarler

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#2 ·
You have a few options.

Swap places with your two hives, the strong one will lose field force and the weak one will gain it.

Take a frame or two of sealed brood with adhering bees, without the queen of course, from your strong hive and give to the weaker hive.

Shake in nurse bees from off a frame or two of open larva from your stronger hive. Once again, keep track and don't shake in the queen.

What you do will depend on just how strong the stronger hive is, can it afford to lose brood or can it afford to lose field bees. I myself tend to lean towards giving brood frames and nurse bees, instead of switching hive positions, when these situations such as yours happens.
 
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#3 ·
After doing what Ray specified you may want to look at requeening that hive. Hives that make it through winter, but have very small clusters are usually a burden on an operation looking to make money. All small clusters in my operation are logged and will have new queens from known good stock placed in them. I don't have time to baby a hive along, but if you are just a hobbiest you may feel it is better to save them.
 
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