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I had 3 hives. 1 died in late winter. The comb was empty and I saw no disease. There were some bees. They didn't finish their sugar brick. I split that hive between my remaining 2 hives. I think I gave them too much space. I have 3 hives. 2 are 6 mediums high. The third is a 4 way queen castle.
The 2 big hives:
I thought I gave them too much space. 3 weeks ago, each had 2 empty comb boxes. Their entrances were small (around 2" long). Traffic was low. Their stores were >70% pollen. >1/2 of foragers had pollen. Brood and stores were spread out. Over a week, 1 hive got active. I opened its entrances 7x more. I added screened ventilation on the top and bottom. I opened the screened bottom board to 1.5". They still have a big beard and >30 bees fanning. High temps have been ~75 F. One day I will multiply the ventilation by 5. The next day it cools off, and bearding increases. The other hive has 8x less traffic (about as much as 3 weeks ago), a little top beard, and unchanged ventilation.
The queen castle:
I did made makeshift queens. I thought I opened and took the most from the huge hive. It was hard to find good larvae. Brood was almost all eggs and very old brood. When it was time to put queen cells in the castle, There was <1/2 frame of eggs in the top box. There was plenty of space to lay. Aside from that, there were about 5 frames of solid pollen and 2 of nectar. Below the top excluder, the bottom queen laid >10x more. I saw it. The top queen only recently laid. The 4 queens I put in my castle are in 2 age groups (21 and 19 days from egg lay). I ordered 2 queens for around 7/22 to replace the package genetics. I want to breed from those.
The 2 big hives:
I thought I gave them too much space. 3 weeks ago, each had 2 empty comb boxes. Their entrances were small (around 2" long). Traffic was low. Their stores were >70% pollen. >1/2 of foragers had pollen. Brood and stores were spread out. Over a week, 1 hive got active. I opened its entrances 7x more. I added screened ventilation on the top and bottom. I opened the screened bottom board to 1.5". They still have a big beard and >30 bees fanning. High temps have been ~75 F. One day I will multiply the ventilation by 5. The next day it cools off, and bearding increases. The other hive has 8x less traffic (about as much as 3 weeks ago), a little top beard, and unchanged ventilation.
The queen castle:
I did made makeshift queens. I thought I opened and took the most from the huge hive. It was hard to find good larvae. Brood was almost all eggs and very old brood. When it was time to put queen cells in the castle, There was <1/2 frame of eggs in the top box. There was plenty of space to lay. Aside from that, there were about 5 frames of solid pollen and 2 of nectar. Below the top excluder, the bottom queen laid >10x more. I saw it. The top queen only recently laid. The 4 queens I put in my castle are in 2 age groups (21 and 19 days from egg lay). I ordered 2 queens for around 7/22 to replace the package genetics. I want to breed from those.