I have two former laying workers hives that have been shaken out and requeened. The queens have been accepted but has not started laying. I believe there is not enough bees left in the hives. One hive has about 2 1/2 frames of bees and the other has about 1 frame. It has been a month and the queens are still alive but not laying yet. I have battled robbing on both hives.
I have two booming hives that I could steal from if I had to.
What should I do to help thing along?
I have also been nursing a weak hive, stealing brood from a strong hive twice.
Yeah, there doing better...but still not getting strong and not producing anything.
If I had it to do over I would have shook the bees off the frames and let them find a new home in the other hives.
Shake them or pinch the queen and combine them w/another hive.....it's not worth it I won't do it again.
I'm sure folks w/more knowledge then myself will chime in.
Good Luck,
Paul
Well, if you want strong hives, combine them into one. If you don't care about the strong hives, take a frame from them to keep your 2 now nucs going through summer. For me, I would put a frame into each.
I had a week hive. I ordered a new queen and replaced the old queen. In a week the hive came to life. It is going through a gallon a day of syrup and she is laying really well.