[catbackr]

I hived two swarms into small topbar hives about 3 weeks ago. Hive 1 did great and I transferred 10 nicely built combs into a 4' hive.

Hive 2 is just the opposite. They aren't building any comb and just seem to be "hanging out" inside the box. I'm feeding them sugar syrup but they just seem to be "lost". I'm thinking that I lost the queen somewhere in the capture or she died on a mating flight. So the question is what to do with them? Can they raise a queen or should I combine them with another hive, or just do nothing?

 

[rkereid]

They can raise a queen if they have brood with eggs or 1 or 2 day larvae, as long as there is no laying worker in the colony.

 

[Billy Y.]

I think I'd just combine the weak one with the strong one. Otherwise, you could take a frame with 1 day old eggs from the stong hive and give it to the weak one to make a queen. Make sure the queen from your strong hive isn't on that frame though.