ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers
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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"> |
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[ocba] Reading my hive (part 2), weak hive,
MarilynMark Clark, 07/25/2013
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Re: [ocba] Reading my hive (part 2), weak hive,
MarilynMark Clark, 07/27/2013
- Re: [ocba] Reading my hive (part 2), weak hive, Randall Austin, 07/27/2013
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Re: [ocba] Reading my hive (part 2), weak hive,
MarilynMark Clark, 07/27/2013
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