Installed two hives 2 days ago. They are 5' apart and were installed within 5 min of each other. They were both 4# packages and were shipped attached to each other. What I noticed and am seeing now is one hive is much more active and has far more bees than the other. I am wondering since they were installed so close to each other and at appx the same time and shipping boxes were set against hives that allot of the bees from one package went into the other hive causing it to have allot more bees than the other. Is this what probably happened and is it a common occurrence when installing bees together in such close proximity at the same time?? All thoughts appreciated. Thank's, Brad
I'm wondering if some of them defected to a stronger queen?
It is not uncommon. My two hives had very different activity during the first few weeks. One was foraging like crazy and the other was taking syrup like crazy, without as much foraging. The one that was foraging was initially slower to draw comb. It all evened out in a month or so. My theory is that one package had a greater population of young nurse bees than the other, but once the brood cycle kicked in, they equalized.
this happens to packages a good bit of the time, its called "Drifting", it happens when new packages are installed and on the orientation flight and the hive's look the same, simple change the hive's around (trade places) and they will balance out.
If one seems to be much more populouse than the other, you can switch their locations and that will help balance them out. The reality is though that you probably don't need to do that. They will be fine.
Thank's Folk's, I'll just give them time and I'm sure all will work out. Thank's, Brad
Just my advice , keep a close eye on it.
mine did this and it took me three days to realy get worried about it. when i finally looked inside (4 days later) there were only about 15 bees and the queen cage. I took 2 frames of bees from the overcrowded one and putting them in the weak one and quarantined them.
now three days later they seem to be fine still underpopulated but fine.
GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!
P.S.
the older members here are great. listen to them.
The difference between the 2 hives could be due to drifting or one package had a higher porportion of forager bees and that leaves the hive looking more vacant during the day. The amount of activity at the entrance, of bee, coming and going, is a good indicator of that.