Opinion needed

[muradulislam]

One of my hives is queen right and two or not(due to my inexperience :'(). provided both of them with eggs and larvae, one has approx. 4 capped queen cells, the other was provided with eggs and larvae yesterday. hope they'll do the same. NOW the problem. queen right hive has some capped, uncapped and pollen stores but the other two hives don't have anything at all. is it normal. started feeding yesterday, should continue or stop???
thanx for your answers.

[muradulislam]

and one more thing, both my queen less hives are side by side and it is my observation that 1 of them starts working half an hour earlier than the other and the same one has approx. 30,40 bees cleaning the entrance all day long while the other one seldom cleans the entrance.....

[Tommyt]

Yes I think feeding is OK and #2 all hives act different
one my look busy while the other sleeps
Just be sure they have queen cups closed,if you could
in any way give them pollen stores from Queen right hive

Tommyt

[Vance G]

Yes feed them 1:1 ratio sugar syrup.  Hopefully they are bringing in pollen of some kind.  I know you have blistering heat now, how long and how cool is your winter.  I do not have a globe with Abbotabad on it.

[muradulislam]

It is not that hot here, max 90F, actually our area is a tourism spot for the rest of pakistan in summer due to mild weather...... yup, girls are bringing pollen back but if there is pollen there should be nectar too, why don't they bring it to hive...... winter is from november till february with a month and a half of rain and occasional snowfall, at night temp drops below freezing but apart from rainy days, days are mild and sunny.

[BlueBee]

So it looks like you’re on about the 35th parallel; that is about the same parallel Memphis TN for our reference.  Hopefully you’re not as hot as Memphis.  

One thing about bee keeping is you’ll get a lot of conflicting advice.  I would be leery about feeding if your summer is relatively mild and wet.  The bees may backfill the brood area and nothing good comes from that.  If you have plants blooming and your max temp is 90F it sure seems like there would be nectar out there.  

Are your non queen right hives full sized hives (1 or 2 deeps) or nucs?  If the non queen rights are foraging I would expect them to bring back nectar too.  Are they building comb and consuming nectar for that?

As for the different start time and the number of bees on the entrance all day, my guess would be that the hives with less bees on the entrance have less bees inside.  The more bees you have in a hive, the more that invariably hang out on the landing board.

It sounds like your two non queen right hives might be on the weak side.  If your other hive starts to boom, you could really boost your weak hives by moving frames of brood from a booming hive into a weak hive.  A weak hive (with few bees) can take a long time to build up if that's what you're dealing with.

[kedgel]

You may want to consider consolidating the two weak hives due to the time involved in building up--that is if you want any honey from them this year. One strong hive will produce more honey than 2 weak ones. If they aren't sufficiently strong by the winter, they may not make it.  You can always do a split in the spring.

[JWChesnut]

The entrance cleaning is typical of "aimless" behavior in a hive that is in very steep decline.  The organization of the colony has been lost.  The bees are preventing robbing by guarding the entrance, but there are no longer bees in sufficient number to stimulate foraging. This sort of terminally weak condition can persist for a few weeks, but the hive is almost certainly doomed.

My advice would be to combine the week hives using the newspaper sheet between super method  (weakest hive on top).

Remember that if your queen cup is just capping, you still have weeks until any new brood appears at all. And the virgin queen has to mate and successfully return.

 You will need every single available worker to get the hive in condition for winter, hence the importance of combining the hives while their is still time.

I am sorry to be negative or blunt about this.  It makes myself extremely sad and heartsick when I encounter the situation in my own apiary.

[muradulislam]

can i provide them with a a queen from my queen right hive and let queen right make their own, one more thing that this cleaning behavior was present when they had a queen and three frames full of open, capped brood and eggs. and after feeding they have quit doing the cleaning, rather both queen less hives have gone agressive, they don't sting yet but every time i get near 3,4 guard bees fly at me and go back after hugging me :-D

[BlueBee]

I wouldn’t take the queen from a good hive and stick her in a weak hive.  That risks making all your hives weak.  Unfortunately it takes close to month for a hive to go from a egg to a new laying queen.  During that month of time, your existing bees (in your good hive) are going to be dying off (they only live 6 weeks) so you could end up with 3 weak hives.   It is better to keep the strong hive strong. It’s a numbers game to keep a hive strong.  You need a laying queen to keep making new bees to compensate for the bees that are dying.  And the more worker bees in a hive, the more eggs the hive can feed and raise. 

If you’ve got capped queen cells in your weak hives, they should hatch out within 8 days (4 days now based on your initial post).  Those queens then have to successfully mate and make it back to their hive to be queen right.  So if you stay on your current path, the weaker hives could be laying within a week or two.  That is good news. 

However if you have a low number of bees in the weak hives they are going to build up slow.  Hence the advise to combine.  I hate combining too, but sometimes we are out of options.  I would rather steel some capped brood from your strong hive and try to boost your weak hives if/when your new queens are mated.   That is, if your strong hive is strong enough to spare some frames of brood.   

How many frames of bees do you see in your non queen right hives?

[muradulislam]

only one is queen less now, in the other one queen emerged the day before yesterday, this hive and the queen less have approximately 3 deep frames full of bees and theses are on some places layered mean 2,3 layer of bees at one place.

[boca]

... one has approx. 4 capped queen cells, the other was provided with eggs and larvae yesterday. hope they'll do the same.

I have just read your post now so my advice is probably too late.
In this case I would have certainly transferred two capped queen cells into the hive which has none. Maybe you can still do it.

[muradulislam]

checked the queen less hive 0n 15 and they had a queen, how they got it i don't know but still no eggs as for yesterday while other two hives are working round the clock to bring pollen back and have eggs, larvae (it all happened after feeding). provided weak hive with a frame of open brood and eggs along with nurse bees. that is the last time i did it, if it does not work, I'll combine them with another and as winter will start in October i think my hives will be ready till then for winter. AND GOT my first two stings from my bees (one on nose and another on neck, was a joy to have them :-D with mourning for the bees who gave their lives :( to give me joy).

[CapnChkn]

Muradulislam, you might want to wear a veil around your bees until you know how gentle they may be.  They will center on your breath and sting around your eyes and face.  I can tell you from experience they will get some crazy ideas.  I have some bees that are so defensive I cannot sit near them for any length of time.

I was sitting next to my "smokeless" hive, and one of the bees from the other hive, 1 meter away, flew over and stung me on the chin!  They've not been provoked in any way, I haven't opened their hive in 2 weeks, there's pollen and nectar around, it's sunny, being morning it was warm but not hot.

One sting is an occupational hazard, but you will not want them to get mad.  Too many stings will send you to the hospital, even if you're not allergic.

[BlueBee]

I was out looking at my bees last night; I find it relaxing after a day’s work.  I came inside to go to bed.  Took off my shoes and socks, work cloths, turned off the lights, and lay down in bed.  Before I could fall asleep I felt a sharp pain on my big toe of all places!  I said to myself, *Ouch* that felt like a bee sting!  Jumped out of bed, turned on the lights, and sure enough there was stinger in my toe and a bee next to it.  Darn thing apparently hitch hiked into the house on my cloths and end up on the bed.  I probably accidently put my foot over it.  

I second CapnChkn advice; you never know what something with a brain the size of a pin head is going to do.

[Kathyp]

sometimes the queens will back off laying for one reason or another.  with your new queen, she needed first to get mated and then to have the resources in the hive for the nurse bees to raise the young.  feeding was a good call, but watch that your strong hive does not try to rob out the weaker hives.  they will be attracted by the feed.  reduce  the entrances and make sure there are not multiple places that the weaker hives need to protect.

last year i lost a weak hive to yellowjacket robbing when i did not realize that there was a crack at the back of the hive.  the weak hive could not protect both entrances and they were eventually killed.