Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: KONASDAD on July 18, 2006, 11:32:21 am

Title: Weak Hive
Post by: KONASDAD on July 18, 2006, 11:32:21 am

I now have two hives. My first is doing awesome. Two deeps w/ a soccer ball pattern of brood and all exterior frames w/ capped honey. Mostly(80%) in lower deep. Med. super is now 30% capped honey and drawing out remainder slowly.
As for second hive. Bought a full deep. Upon inspection, there is a mixture of foundation varieties and those which are real wired wax have mouse damage that is old. 8 frames are drawn out and filled w/ mostly brood and lots of pollen and little to now nectar or honey. Almost entirely worker brood. The deep is lite, at about 20lbs. I have had this setup three weeks. Added SBB, slatted rack and a med super the day i got it. Since then, I have never seen the queen, but capped brood and larvae and eggs. This hive has not expabded one bit since I got it. I fed one gal of syrup which they consumed in two days. Didn't feed anymore. I am conscerned they aren't expanding sufficiently. Have not drawn any super foundations and there is one board in deep that they never go on and has not drawn out anything. I am worried they will not get ready for winter properly. What can I do to  boost this hives productivity?

Title: Re: Weak Hive
Post by: Finsky on July 18, 2006, 12:23:06 pm

Quote from: KONASDAD

I now have two hives. My first is doing awesome. Two deeps w/ a soccer ball pattern of brood and all exterior frames w/ capped honey. Mostly(80%) in lower deep. Med. super is now 30% capped honey and drawing out remainder slowly.

You shoud extract honey so queen has space to lay eggs.

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As for second hive. ...This hive has not expabded one bit since I got it.

It takes 3 weeks before bees start to emerge from egg to adult.

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I am worried they will not get ready for winter properly. What can I do to  boost this hives productivity?

There is enough time to get colonies stong for winter.

Title: Weak Hive
Post by: Brian D. Bray on July 18, 2006, 10:38:34 pm

Relocate the one frame they haven't done anything with by moving it 1 or 2 frames over net to the outside brood frame, putting the honey frame(s) on that side on the opposite side of the foundation frame.  this might stimulate the hive to draw the comb and also give the queen additional brood space which will benefit the hive in any case.

If you only have 4 or 5 frames with brood then the hive is not building at the rate it needs to in order to be productive.  If you have 4-5 frames of honey stores in the brood area follow Finky's advice and empty a few of the frames of their honey stores to free up brood space.

If neither option works then I'd mark this hive for requeening either this year or next early next spring.

Title: Weak Hive
Post by: KONASDAD on July 19, 2006, 04:54:50 pm

Just a quick question regarding advice. I have no extractor. How would i take some honey to relieve congestion, but still have drawn foundation?

Title: Weak Hive
Post by: Finsky on July 19, 2006, 05:35:16 pm

Quote from: KONASDAD

I have no extractor.

When  you nurse bees, extractor is worth owning.

Title: Weak Hive
Post by: Hi-Tech on July 19, 2006, 05:35:24 pm

You can also swap its location with a bigger hive and the worker bees from that bigger hive will boost the population of the weak one.

Title: Weak Hive
Post by: Brian D. Bray on July 20, 2006, 12:41:06 am

Foundation also works it just takes a skoshi longer.