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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: MarilynMark Clark <wazazi.wa.binti AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Bees <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Reading my hive (part 2), weak hive
  • Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 12:43:34 -0400

Hey Mark,

No, that wasn't a dumb or simple question at all. I think the problem is that it is a issue we all encounter at one time or another, and nobody knows the "best" way to handle it.

I think the difficult part of the equation is that we are square in the middle of a typical hot summer nectar dearth. A well-behaved queen isn't going to be in expansion mode. So is the low number of brood you are seeing a sign of a good & thrifty queen or the sign of a bad & failing queen? Or is the break in brood due to the hive replacing the queen without you realizing it, and she hasn't really gotten good at laying yet? Or is the hive teetering on the threshold of having enough bees to expand (it takes bees to make bees), and if you put in a frame of emerging brood from another hive it may give them the little extra oomph they need to take off and do well?

If it were my hive, I think what I would do is transfer a frame or two of emerging brood (not eggs) from another hive and see if that makes a difference. I've seen it work exactly that way before. That is a low-risk strategy right now since taking a frame from a strong hive won't affect the donor hive's productivity at this time of year. If there aren't enough bees in the target hive in proportion to the transferred brood, I would shake off some nurse bees from the donor hive to go along with the transfer.

Please let us know how it turns out!

Randall Austin


On 7/27/2013 9:27 AM, MarilynMark Clark wrote:
CAMaQ7+CyFGDi55osUymJkk6O8YW2LtaawOguKzXjbuj4-MyCSw AT mail.gmail.com" type="cite">
My wife use to have a Sandra Boynton cartoon poster with the teacher saying "Billy, there is no such thing as a stupid question, but if there were, that certainly would have been one." No one has chimed in with an opinion on my weak-hive questions, I was wondering if they were too simple or obtuse?


On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 10:58 AM, MarilynMark Clark <wazazi.wa.binti AT gmail.com> wrote:
In mid June I had an inactive hive which was started from a package in mid May and seemed strong at first.  But by mid June I was afraid it had gone queenless since I could only find capped brood; so, as suggested by Randall Austin, I added some egg-laden frames from my other hive just as insurance.  Checking it again the middle of this month I saw all stages of brood which makes me think that the queen was there all along, but had taken a hiatus for some reason.  But, the hive is still very weak: they take very little sugar water and let the pollen patties I gave them dry up.  I checked them again when I did my sugar shake test yesterday (second time for me, I hated missing the workshop).  No mites, but poor brood patterns, too many drone cells for my taste, and less activity at the entrance, and few bees for two hive bodies (full and Illinois 10 frame) in the middle of the summer.  I saw no queen cells.

Should I keep feeding the eggs from the other hive and look for improvement?  Attempt to find the queen, kill her, and add eggs?  Why aren't the workers dissatisfied with her?  Buy a queen  (I hate this option, even for as a not-for-profit hobbyist), but ... ? 

Mark



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