[timothyvanwing]

This is my first year beekeeping. So I'm pretty new. I have two hives, that I started at about May 20ish. I started with two nucs, both with different variety of bees. (the strong hive is Buckfast, the weak; Carolina) Can I still transfer frames to each hive even though they're both different type of bees?

Also,
How do I know when to stop feeding the bees with sugar syrup. I fed them about 3/4 gallon, the buckfast sucked it up in about 11 days, but the Carolina only sucked up about 75% within those 11 days. Both bees filled a whole entire frame full of sugar syrup, maybe more, and they were drawing more comb out. Should i keep feeding them until they lose interest?

Thanks for all of the help.
Tim

 

[indypartridge]

Can I still transfer frames to each hive even though they're both different type of bees?

Yes.

Also,
How do I know when to stop feeding the bees with sugar syrup.

For new colonies that are drawing out foundation, I keep feed available until they have drawn out two deeps. I may stop sooner if I begin to see plenty of capped honey (syrup) which tells me they have enough stores to last awhile. Basically, I want them to have food available so that if there's a week or two of bad weather, they can keep busy drawing comb.

 

[Jeff G]

I switch a frame of Carniolians to a hive of Italians and it is interesting to see the mix of bees comming out of the front of the hive.

One thing I try and do when feeding is gage how much they will use in about 3 or 4 days and that way I can give them fresh syrup more often. I have 2 hives that are consuming about 1 quart per day and they are 4 weeks and 6 weeks old. They really suck it down when building comb and raising brood. Keep feeding.

 

[honeyshack]

depends on why one nuc is weak.
Is it weak because it has an older queen? then pinch and add a new queen
Is it weak due to nosema?
Is it weak due to varroa?
Is it weak due to low pollen stores?

Asses why it is weak before you take necessary bees from your strong hive. That hive is in reality not really strong yet. It needs the bees it is producing to get ready for a flow of nectar.

Realize the time frame you are looking at

21 days for laid eggs to emerge and be a bee
23 days for that bee to become a forager
23 days for that forager to live and then die

If your hive was a wintered hive instead of a 3 week old nuc, yeah sure you have the bees and brood to spare. But a nuc needs all the help it can get at this stage. To weaken a "supposed" "strong" hive at this point seems futile.

Just a note, something most people who are new do not know about purchased nucs. The beek who makes up the nuc rarely uses a new queen. The new queen goes into their hive. You are getting an older queen. At least a year maybe two. By age two they are slowing down

 

[honeybeekeeper]

Yes they are just starting out so you want to keep feeding, you want to keep feeding feeding feeding until the bees dont want it anymore!! As far as the strong nuc and the weak nuc...Find out why the one nuc is weak...Is it because of not having many bees?? Then find out what happened to all the bees! Is there eggs?..Is there Brood?? Is there Larva? One thing you dont want to do is add healthy bees into a weak unhealthy nuc hive until you find out the reason why! Plus if you do add bees to the weak hive make sure you find the queen first and leave her behind. But like i mentioned, find out whats causing the issue first before you do anything extreme! I had a TBH stop working and i stopped and took a minute to find the problem and here the queen was honey bound, she had no room to lay eggs so after adding a bar to the brood area they went right back to work again like nothing ever happened. so look into the problem first and go from there! Good Luck!

 

[timothyvanwing]

The queen is still laying brood In a decent pattern, it's Just not as much as the other hive. As far as I know I don't see any problems within the hive. When I got the nucs the buckfast hive already had more bees. Maybe the buckfast was split before the carolinians. And so is older than them.
I fed my hives with a jar of 1:1 sugar water upside down ontop if the frames with an empty deep covering it. Is this a good way to feed them? Or is there a better solution? Thanks so much everyone for all of the help!

-Sent from my iPod

 

[honeybeekeeper]

Thats a great way to feed them! As the population grows and they start to feed more you will want a 4 jar feeder! I started out with one jar, then 2 jars, then 3 jars now i have my hives on 4 jars! I have 2 brand new top feeders in the other room that are brand new and never used! They hold a gallon or so of feed! I will probably sell them on ebay unless someone wants to buy them for what i paid for them and shipping costs! No handling charges!

 

[johng]

Theres nothing wrong with feeding them that way. You will find there are numerous ways to feed and even more opinions on which is best. Just use what ever you have or what ever you like. I don't think there is really a wrong way. Just keep them fed until they get built up. With the heat of summer keep the sugar water changed more often, since it can go bad in the heat.