I have sort of of interesting situation.
Two hives, standing one right next to another. Both were splits, one from survivor bees (call them hive S) and another from carniolians (C). Split at the same time equally strong. Both were queened with new breeder queens (Russians), since queens were early season queens I would guess they are most likely sisters, but I'm speculating here. Anyway, both hives accepted queens and grew sort of similar, hive S may be a bit stronger, but barely noticeable.
Roughly two weeks back I put one deep and one medium on each hive. Checked them Y'day: S hive is visually much stronger and more populous. S queen is laying wall to wall, top deep is full with brood, larvae and eggs. Decent amount of honey, but they did not even touch the medium super and had a bunch of swarm cells!.
C hive - not as many bees BUT the medium super is 3/4 full, second deep as 50% full with honey. Plenty of larvae, brood and eggs, but nowhere near as hive S. In my rough weighting C hive has over 20 pounds of honey than S.
Now, question is why? What exactly made a difference? Queens? Unlikely. Carniolians vs Survivors - I doubt it. Just a chance - I don't know. Wonder if anybody had similar experience.
Also think that S hive would be a good candidate to be promoted in to nucs and be a good bee factory. Definitely want to use C hive daughters for new queens next year.
Two hives, standing one right next to another. Both were splits, one from survivor bees (call them hive S) and another from carniolians (C). Split at the same time equally strong. Both were queened with new breeder queens (Russians), since queens were early season queens I would guess they are most likely sisters, but I'm speculating here. Anyway, both hives accepted queens and grew sort of similar, hive S may be a bit stronger, but barely noticeable.
Roughly two weeks back I put one deep and one medium on each hive. Checked them Y'day: S hive is visually much stronger and more populous. S queen is laying wall to wall, top deep is full with brood, larvae and eggs. Decent amount of honey, but they did not even touch the medium super and had a bunch of swarm cells!.
C hive - not as many bees BUT the medium super is 3/4 full, second deep as 50% full with honey. Plenty of larvae, brood and eggs, but nowhere near as hive S. In my rough weighting C hive has over 20 pounds of honey than S.
Now, question is why? What exactly made a difference? Queens? Unlikely. Carniolians vs Survivors - I doubt it. Just a chance - I don't know. Wonder if anybody had similar experience.
Also think that S hive would be a good candidate to be promoted in to nucs and be a good bee factory. Definitely want to use C hive daughters for new queens next year.