Hi everybody.
Two days ago I checked a hive that I requeen back in May It was doing good.
know I was only able to save the Queen and like 10 bees.
Should I try and save this Queen, by taking some frames of brood and honey from my other tow hives,
they are doing ok.
Thanks for any advise or help.
are you in the valley or the hills? what's your winter like and your temps now?
I'm in southern California, Los Angeles to be more exact. right know the temps are around the 80's,
we don't have winter here, we go to the mid 40's
Thanks.
even in your area, there will be some backing off laying by the queen. you might be able to pull it off. here is what i would do.
first, i would determine that there is plenty of brood in the other two hives and that the populations are high. then i would take one frame of mostly capped brood with nurse bees from each hive and put them, with the queen and surviving bees in a nuc. then feed them as much as they will take. probably wouldn't hurt to move the nuc away from the other hives and reduce your entrance to the smallest size.
if you do this during the warmth of the day, you'll move fewer field bees. make sure you do not move the queens from the other hives!
it's a little bit of a risk to try at this time of the year, but in your area, you may be able to do it.
If all you got was 1 queen and ten bees from the hive, I'd be caging that queen for a few days while you get a few frames of bees introduced.