[WRLCPA]

OK, I am very confused. I confirmed today with local Beeks that there is a flow on. I have three hives, two nucs 2 weeks old and one package 5 weeks old that I added two frames of brood. The issue with this one is that I started with a medium and added a deep on top to support the brood that I had to buy. First year here.

Went to inspect just now and the two nucs..................NOTHING, no new comb NOTHING

The package..........Top Deep was ALMOST full. Id say 75%

Bottom Medium was like it was when I added the deep.........I switched the positions...


Did I do good?
What is going on with the other two?????

 

[Tenbears]

I am not trying to bust your chops> But you need to join a bee club. your methodology seems a bit like a shotgun blast. There is nothing wrong with using medium boxes as brood chambers, and nothing wrong with using deeps. but generally one picks one or the other. And what impulse you to switch positions on them? Why did you add brood to a fairly new package. without knowing all the particulars, it sounds as though you are over doing things.

As for the nucs, do they have eggs in them, newly hatched larva? have you seen signs of queen activity? have you been feeding them so they can build comb?

 

[WRLCPA]

Ten bears, no worries. I post to get my chops busted. Thanks for your help. I did join a club and am in the process of joining another. My "methods" Are shotgun because I am very new to this.

I started using all mediums exclusively but when my first hive absconded and the second superseded, it was suggested I add brood of which I had none so I bought deeps to add brood.

So that's why did what I did with the deeps and mediums. Am I overdoing things? Probably.

Switching positions???? The deep on top wasn't getting drawn and I read that they will move up so I so I switched. So I ask again did I do good or should I switch back?

So on to the real meat of your reply, yes queens in all three. Both caped and uncapped brood and eggs.

So, why are they not drawing comb?

I really hate these blogs because they are so informal. I am trying to learn on the fly. Thank you ten bears for all if your responses to all my posts. I truly appreciate them

Ten Bear, I added brood to the package hive because they superseded the queen, because I killed the queen accidentally or they swarmed, or simply they needed their own queen. The package was weak and I felt I needed to boost it. Now it is the strongest hive, building new comb.

 

[Vance G]

I have a number of colonies with a medium and a deep for a brood nest. I have some with three mediums and I have some with three deeps, that is not important to me and when you have multiple hives managed the same way presents no real obstacles. The two nucs with no brood mean your supplier didn't give you a laying queen or the queens were someway lost or killed when the nucs were installed. Try to figure out which and how it could have happened. Since you have a going concern, steal a frame with open brood for each of your nucs so they can raise a new queen or supplement them until you obtain replacement queens. Just the brood, leave your good hive its bees. In fact you will have unmistakable evidence in about three days as there will be emergency cells about ready to be sealed in the broodless hives. I am betting that is what you would find anyway. Good luck. Don't switch the boxes again, the bees will sort it out and you don't have the experience to help them. That is OK, no huge damage done. Vance

 

[WRLCPA]

Thanks for the reply Vance. I see where the confusion comes, I didn't specify very well, but I do have 5 frames of different levels of brood in both Nucs and brood and a superseded laying queen in the other, they are just not adding new comb with the exception of the hive I swapped boxes for the sole purpose of trying to get them to move up.

I am thinking the reason there is no build in the nuc's is because there there are not enough foragers yet, where as the hive I added 2 frames brood too boost, already had the original package bees AND I suspect a lot of the bees from one of the two nucs migrated to it.

I'm just an anxious rookie that would love a frame or two in year one as justification for taking this hobby seriously.

Vance, as I said in a previous post, I had intended to go all mediums, but now that I have had to add deeps to accommodate the frames of brood, how do you find using a deep and medium for brood? Do they expand into another medium? Do they winter well? I had thought about trying this and actually have more mediums than deeps. I only have two deeps left over, so I will have to go Deep, Medium on at least one hive unless I purchase another 1 deep and frames, which I reall don't want to do.

 

[psfred]

They are not drawing comb because they don't have the foragers to collect nectar, flow or not. Feed if you want comb -- -I'm thinking of putting the feeder back on my package today, they aren't doing, and since I heard queen piping the other day, I suspect they have a new queen in there. Wont' be any new bees for a while, and summer is marching on here into our big dearth.

Feed is cheap compared to new packages.

Peter

 

[WRLCPA]

They are not drawing comb because they don't have the foragers to collect nectar, flow or not. Feed if you want comb -- -I'm thinking of putting the feeder back on my package today, they aren't doing, and since I heard queen piping the other day, I suspect they have a new queen in there. Wont' be any new bees for a while, and summer is marching on here into our big dearth.

Feed is cheap compared to new packages.

Peter

Thanks Peter. I also came to that conclusion. It has been nearly 20 days since I installed the two 5 frames Nucs so I will watch anxiously to see if they start drawing comb. With the exception of about 2 days, I have kept a top feeder with 1:1 syrup constantly. Some days they consumed more than others, and recently, they have been consuming even more. I am told the main flow here in Vermont just recently began, so heres hoping the main flow isn't a total bust

so can I assume that there were emerging workers the day I installed mybtwo nucs? If so, the nucs have been installed for about 20 bays meaning they should be about ready to start growing

 

[BGhoney]

Whats your temp over there ? bees have a hard time drawing comb in cool weather. We cooled off here back into the 60's slowing things down.