Weak hive, strong hive

842 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Bees In Miami, Jun 4, 2014

dkofoed

Discussion Starter · Jun 3, 2014

I set up two Arataki packages in brand new hives (new foundation) in the beginning of April. Both seemed to progress at the same rate for a while, but some time in the last month or so one of the hives has really ramped it up. There are visibly more bees around the hive, definitely more numbers in the hive and they are drawing out foundation much more quickly. The other hive does seem to be progressing as well, just much more slowly ... I went today and added a 3rd medium hive body to the "strong" hive and left the other one at 2.

Should this be cause for any concern? Is one queen just a lot more prolific than the other? Since I only have 2 hives I'm worried that the strong hive might ultimately take over the weaker one for some reason (robbing/etc) at some point.

Should i leave well enough alone, or do something like take a frame of brood from the strong and give the weaker one a boost?

Speaking of brood ... the only thing I can think that could account for the difference is that i managed to drop a frame of brood from the weaker hive a few weeks ago. Some larvae fell out, I'm not really sure what else. Would that be enough to set it back considerably?

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WBVC

· #2 · Jun 4, 2014

I have Arataki packages...all perform differently.

If both have brood and adequate bees to cover I would think it is OK.

If one has lots of bees and one is really struggling, both being Queenright, you could swap places so the weaker hive pucks up some bees.

I am also new to this but those with experience have mentioned this in previous posts.

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Bees In Miami

· #3 · Jun 4, 2014

You sure the queen wasn't on that frame you dropped? Do you see eggs and uncapped brood in different stages in the weaker hive? If yes, I'd suggest you let them run their course and keep an eye on them for a bit. If you dropped that frame hard enough, and they are still queen right, you could have set that hive back by a few thousand bees...hopefully it's that simple. Good luck!

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