Hi all,
I have 6 hives - 5 made it through winter. The one that didn't make it was simply empty when I opened it. Maybe a really late swarm last year? Regardless, the hive next to it is absolutely overflowing with bees. I don't know how so many are in there after winter, but it is 2x 10 frame boxes and both boxes are stuffed to the gills - all 10 frames. They have about 8 queen cells that are well established and capped and all on the bottom of the frame, which makes me think the queen is being superseded. Should I take all of the frames that have queen cells and move them into the empty hive? Note, the empty hive has tons of traffic in and out, which I have to think is robbing, as it was 100% empty several weeks ago when I checked during an off warm day. I don't want to start fighting with the robbers, and I don't want the bees that I move in there to fly out and return to their hive next door, but I also don't want this massive amount of bees to swarm off, though that may be unavoidable at this point.
Thanks for any input!
Scott
I have 6 hives - 5 made it through winter. The one that didn't make it was simply empty when I opened it. Maybe a really late swarm last year? Regardless, the hive next to it is absolutely overflowing with bees. I don't know how so many are in there after winter, but it is 2x 10 frame boxes and both boxes are stuffed to the gills - all 10 frames. They have about 8 queen cells that are well established and capped and all on the bottom of the frame, which makes me think the queen is being superseded. Should I take all of the frames that have queen cells and move them into the empty hive? Note, the empty hive has tons of traffic in and out, which I have to think is robbing, as it was 100% empty several weeks ago when I checked during an off warm day. I don't want to start fighting with the robbers, and I don't want the bees that I move in there to fly out and return to their hive next door, but I also don't want this massive amount of bees to swarm off, though that may be unavoidable at this point.
Thanks for any input!
Scott