weak hive

[troutstalker2]

 I have three hives, two doing well, one not so good. The weak hive has a Russian queen, so I thought the small amount of bees this winter was not unusual. Going into winter it did not have alot of stores of honey, but I thought I did a pretty good job of keeping them fed. The other two hives are going gangbusters and this hive is not building up as I expected, very little brood and I have been feeding all that the will take. (sugar syrup) Should I just try to combine them with another hive or give them a couple of weeks to see what happens? Or should I combine them with a queen excluder between the two and try to run a 2 queen hive? I don't want to lose the colony all together. I should mention that spring is pretty much here in north Carolina, but the main honey flow is around April 15 to about June 1st


  thanks, David

[jdpro5010]

If you don't suspect any disease(foulbrood) then I would requeen and see what happens.  That is provided there are enough bees to maintain the colony.

[Cossack]

Hello,

You should requeen and add some brood from one of the other hives to help build the colony up.

Cossack.

[troutstalker2]

 

  Thanks for the info. I thought that maybe she was just late to build up. I have a queen coming but will not be shipped until April 6th or something like that. I guess I will just add some brood from another hive to keep it going.

 David