Mailing list for the Person County Beekeepers Association, Roxboro, NC

[Randall Austin <s.randall.austin AT gmail.com>]

Mary,

When I move frames of brood like that to boost another hive, I leave the 
nurse bees on the brood frame that is being transferred. They are part 
of the boost to the weak hive. Nurse bees aren't old & grumpy like 
foragers and are less inclined to fight other bees. Since they aren't 
coming in through the entrance, they don't trigger defensiveness from 
the guard bees either.

If you don't do that, it sounds like you many not have enough nurse bees 
in the new hive to keep the brood warm.

Others may have other opinions, but this seems to work for me.

Randall

On 5/26/2015 1:35 PM, Mary Florence wrote:
> I have a very strong hive with lots of bees and 3+ frames of capped brood.  I 
> want to move one or two frames of brood to a hive with laying queen, small 
> amount of capped brood, but barely enough bees to cover one side of a frame.
>
> When I move these, do I leave the bees on the frame of brood from with strong 
> hive, or brush them off and put frame in with as few bees as possible?  My 
> concern is that the bees might not accept each other or the bees from strong 
> hive might kill off the queen.
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