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Well, I never was any good at micro-managing anyway.

1241 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  fish_stix
Short version:

Remaining hive from last year took a big hit with a cold snap in spring. When it was warm enough to peek in there, it was a handful (50-100) bee's with a queen. Limped them along through spring, but alas the queen died on me and it became a laying worker hive. Was ordering queens for a couple other hives and decided to give them one last shot before I just combine them a stronger hive. My wife and I did a quick check 6 days afterward and the queen was out. Good!!! Yippee!!!!

About three weeks later, I notice that this little hive just doesn't seem to be very active like the other two next to it. I thinks to myself..."Hmmm, we have got to get in there and see what is going on." Then life happened and just couldn't do a inspection. (Between thunderstorms causing damage, ***** killing chickens, vehicle breakdowns and various other problems that are just part of life I'm happy to get 5 hours of sleep a night.)

It's now 4 weeks after re-queening and I just came in from a nice sweaty (it's really stupid hot here today) inspection. The girls have things all sorted out. The queen is in her place and was laying, even right in front of my eyes (evidently she is not shy). They seemed to be just fine albeit at a slower pace than I am used to.

It's a relief that they don't need me to intervene and tell them what to do all the time because I just can't keep up with what I have now.
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Why don't you try pumping them up a little with a frame or two of capped brood and bees from your other hives. Makes a world of difference to weak hives that are just hanging on and trying to get ahead of the brood curve.
That is what I was planning for next week. I have a moderately strong hive 4 feet away facing the opposite direction that I could pull from. I didn't do it yesterday as I just did a full inspection in that hive Saturday and didn't want to disturb them. They were good girls so I was trying to be nice especially since it was 97 degrees with a index of 105 or so yesterday when I was out there. They handle the heat much better than I. :eek:
You ever heard the old saying "Today, not tomorrow?" Works with bees as well as business. The sooner you make your move the better off your bees will be.
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