[BuzzKill]

I just installed my very first two packages yesterday afternoon. It went smooth with the exception of cutting myself pretty good with the hive tool trying to pull the cork from the queen cage. I went back in today to release the queen and noticed that hive #1 had less than half of the amount that I had poured in the day before and hive 2 was the exact opposite. It looked as if it nearly doubled in size. The hives are just 2-3 feet apart. Should I be concerned about this or just switch the hives locations around to even out the numbers in the next few days?
Thanks

 

[Michael Bush]

It's up to you if you want to try to even them out. It is a typical problem. I think they prefer one queen over the other. Sometimes the abandon one queen and move entirely into the other hive. You are fortunate this didn't happen...

 

[Vance G]

When that happens, I normally reverse the hives so the larger colony loses population to the smaller. If indeed one queen is not as attractive to the workers, it may not work well, but I would try it a couple times and see if the less popular queen is laying enough eggs to keep her workers busy. If she is not, you might want a new queen.

 

[Chrissmith1980]

This happen to me to.The day after I was feeding suger syrp in this big feeder and seen a lot of bees walking around on the ground and the next day they was gone then a day later when I inspected the hive I noticed one hive has a lot more bees.What should I do? Should I keep the qreen or order another

 

[Michael Bush]

>What should I do?
You can either let them continue as they are, or switch places with the hives so the larger field force returns to the weaker hive. If some of the bees have stayed with the queen, they will either replace her or keep her. Sometimes they abandon her altogether...

 

[Paulemar]

I just installed my very first two packages yesterday afternoon. It went smooth with the exception of cutting myself pretty good with the hive tool trying to pull the cork from the queen cage. I went back in today to release the queen and noticed that hive #1 had less than half of the amount that I had poured in the day before and hive 2 was the exact opposite. It looked as if it nearly doubled in size. The hives are just 2-3 feet apart. Should I be concerned about this or just switch the hives locations around to even out the numbers in the next few days?
Thanks

I'm also going to be installing my first 2 packages in 2-3 weeks and would like to avoid this problem rather than have to fix it if possible. Would having 2 distinctly different hive colors/patterns help the new packages remember which hive they should be returning to? Is there another way? My new hives are about 8 ft apart.
Buzzkill, keep us posted as to what happens. When I install I'm going to have to be especially careful of my hive tool too!

 

[Michael Bush]

I don't think they drift because they can't tell the two hives apart, I think they drift because they CAN tell the two queens apart. Install them just before dark and they will have to settle quickly and by morning they may no drift so much.

 

[Paulemar]

Michael, thank you. After re-reading this entire thread again I realized that you gave a likely reason for this happening in your first reply to BuzzKill. My reading comprehension skills must be going down the tubes.:s