I'm very new to beekeeping and I've got a couple of questions about my hive.
I got a hive from a new swarm a few months ago in early spring (I'm in Australia, we've just hit summer.) and it grew rapidly for about a month. At that point I put another box of frames on top of the old one and have seen next to no growth since. There does appear to be a decent amount of brood, but much of it appears to be producing drones (larger cells all through the brood). The last couple of times I have opened the box there have been very few bees in the top box, perhaps only 20. I'm still a bit hazy on what bee is what but I think there are few workers in the hive.
I would have thought that this time of year is very productive for bees, but perhaps I'm wrong.
Any advice on whether to worry or not would be appreciated.
Its not uncommon to get an older failing queen with a swarm or even a young queen that's just a dud, you just never know with swarms. Overall, I've had mostly good luck with swarms but some don't pan out.
Its a good idea to keep a watchful eye on colonies that started with a swarm. If they aren't really gettin' at it, I would re queen, but consider first whether resources are good in your area that could also have a bearing on colony growth.
...JP
Cheers, thanks for the reply.
I'd say resources are good around here at the moment, we had a lot of rain recently and I live in an urban area with a lot of gardens.
Generally, how fast would it be expected that a new hive expands in the spring/summer season? I assume that by really getting at it you mean they should be building up the comb in the top frame and start laying in honey quite quickly?
Do a search on this forum about baiting supers. Taking a couple of frames from the llower box into the upper box. That and possibly requeen if the current queen is not producing adequately. You have time downunder to do a supercedure type of replacement if you don't want to spend the money for a new queen.