This will depend on what hives are next to what other hive (if you know what I mean)

It's almost winter, if those were my hives I might shake out #3 and give the resources to #1 or #2, and if you meant #4 is the same as #3 (you said 4-4) I would shake that one out also. This would work best if the hive next door needs bees.

Either way I would not take a hive with spotty drone brood into winter, and would not try to combine it this late.

Just my $0.02, and is based on my understanding of your assesment.

How many hives do you have?

 

Thanks for the response. I have 19 hives between mine and my fathers. They are about a mile apart from one another in 3 different yards. Hive 1 is in a yard, hive 2 is in another and hives 3 and 4 are in s seperate location. Again they are all within 1 mile of one another. I wish they were right next to each other it would make life easier. Do you think that hive 1 being so small it will only require some resources ie honey and pollen to over winter? Should I dump out hives 3 and 4 in a yard that has the other weak hives or is that a waste of time?:s

 

Melissaa, your hive locations adds to the conundrum. Let me ask another question, have you checked weight on all the other hives? Any of your "good hives" seem light?

My first thought was to move #3 and place it on top of #1, then after a few days do a shake out and remove the #3 hive (most bees would find their way to #1) problem is the short move. Could you move 3 & 4, 4 miles away for 4 or 5 days?

Maybe MB or Countryboy will chime in here, I'd like to hear their thoughts.
Also I'll think about it and post again this evening.
Brac

 

Thanks for your response Brac. My stronger hives are heavy....top box is completly filled and capped and second box in most hives is either filled with honey or filled with honey and some pollen and brood. (bottom box has brood and some stores) My strong hives very strong with plenty of stores....I use all meds. If there is a chance that either hive 3 or 4 having laying workers and I combine one with hive 1 and one with hive 2 do I risk they laying worker hive killing the colony that I know have queens??? Do I do a newspaper combine and what hive goes on bottom and what one on top? I will be happy if I have at least one successful combine. Thanks for the help! Anyone that has any suggestions please let know.

 

What time of year did you make the split with hive #1? What was the configuration you used when you made the split, ie 3 frames brood, 2 frames honey? Just trying to get an idea of the queens quality for hive 1.

Depending on the quality of the queen in colony 1, I would combine all of them with that colony, since you said hive 2 lagged behind all of your stronger colonies.

I hope none of these colonies are headed by queens I sold you

 

Hey! I did the split in the middle of July....maybe a bad idea. I took 2 frames brood and one frame of honey and pollen. I was going to let them make their own queen but decided to get one off you. I love the queen, nice brood pattern, real gentle.....I think she just took awile to start to lay. It just seems like they do not want to move out of the area they are in. Maybe I didn't give them enough pollen and honey that they felt would be enough to raise brood...maybe it was during a dearth??.. The more I think about the situation I am wondering if I dump out 3 and 4 and give stores to 1 and 2 maybe best way to go??? I do really like how gentle hive 1 is. I also think that hive 2 had some queen issues during the season that is why they built up so slow, again good brood pattern just not a lot of stores. I just want to do the best thing without jepordizing all 4 hives.

 

Hey! I did the split in the middle of July....maybe a bad idea. I took 2 frames brood and one frame of honey and pollen. I was going to let them make their own queen but decided to get one off you. I love the queen, nice brood pattern, real gentle.....I think she just took awile to start to lay.

I would have given them 3 frames of capped brood for a mid July split along with two frames of honey. I also would have fed them heavily until they were heavy enough to get through winter. My experience with July splits is they need to be fed otherwise they shut down brood production because there is no nectar to bring in during mid July until early September when the golden rod starts to bloom. Usually there is no rain even when the golded rod does start to bloom. I play it safe and always feed late splits to keep the queen laying and the colony heavy for winter.

 

So at this point what would be my best option?

 

Melissa I think I would just go ahead and find my strongest queen, destroy the others and combine all hives into one.

 

No, no combine. if they are laying workers and you combine they may kill your queen, then :ws. That's the reason for a shakeout, what usally happens is the bees that are not LWs will go into the hive closest to the their old location, thereby helping build up the #'s in that hive. So I was thinking you may want to move 3 and 4 away 3 miles for 4-5 days then set 3 on top of 1, and 4 on top of 2, for a day or 2, at that point you take 3 fifty feet away and shake all the bees on to the ground, then choose a different spot and do the same with #4. Now you have all the frames from 3 and 4 to give out as you choose.
Let us know what you do, and how it goes.

For future ref. always feed new splits.
BTW, what ever your gonna do, get to it, winters coming.

 

Is there any worker brood in hive 3 and 4, or is it just spotty drone brood? Can you take pictures?

 

Definitely before you combine anything make sure the weak ones are not diseased ones. Personally I would not combine 2 weak ones. They generally are junk by Spring. If you dont think they will make it on their own then put em on top of a strong colony. If not much for bees and no brood shake em in the field and start with more splits in spring. I made two frame splits on queen cells in early July with excellent results. All but 2 are great. The two I will shake in the field where they are and store the boxes till spring.

 

In my opinion, you need to find out if you have laying workers. If you do, don't combine them with anything. Also what genetics do you have?