Just went into a hive that has been pretty much neglected since last summer. The hive is a 10 frame two deep hive. Numbers seem ok, but all that I see is some drone brood and ALOT of empty comb. Basicly no stores, no worker brood, just mostly empty comb. I wanted to check more, but they got a bit mean and after a few stings to the hand, I closed it up, I feel I saw enough. I guess its queenless. Am I correct assuming best way to rectify is to add open brood once a week for next 3 weeks? If this is correct, does it matter where I put the new frames? Should I feed? Its been a wet cold spring here and Im guessing they are living day to day on what they can bring in between storms.
Well first i'd go in and make real sure you don't have a queen. What you may have is a drong laying queen. If so pinch her and add brood. Now if you have a laying worker situation you'll need to take the frames of bees away from the hive before you add the brood and shake them some say different distances but i'd say no greater then 50 yards away and you should be fine. Just want to make sure the laying worker doesn't find her way back into the hive. After you do that add your frame make sure you have brood no older then 3 days (just starting to form a comma and are very very small). Keep us posted on what you find and good luck.
ive read you should shake at least 100 yards?? :?
I'd make sure you don't have a queen.
If you have a laying worker colony, and that means MULTIPLE laying workers and not a single "worker" as noted above, then I would combine with a queenright colony.
Shaking out bees in my experience fails almost always. Bees are great at finding the only big old hive 50-100 yards from where you shake them especially when they start fanning at the entrance, which is guaranteed once you shake out the bees. Out of 20 or more laying workers, having one find her way back to the hive is a given.
If you have enough resources to add frames every week, also means you have the means to combine the laying worker colony with another hive, then break them apart later. This allows the combined hive to benefit from the additional comb and you usually have a bigger unit to split in a few weeks, as compared to the diminishing colony you have while farting around adding frames and waiting for a new queen to be raised.
oooh lord at the woes of proper grammer when posting one letter makes you wrong. makes me feel good that someone at least is reading what i post lol.
Shaking is pretty much a waste of time as far as losing laying workers. They do know their way back. Adding brood, however, will resolve the issue if you do it every week for three weeks. Combining works if the laying worker hive is weak and the hive you combine with is strong, or you create enough confuision with several small laying worker hives and one queenright one.
I summarized laying workers on this page for your convenience......
http://www.bjornapiaries.com/badbeekeeping.html (http://www.bjornapiaries.com/badbeekeeping.html)
Thankyou all for your advice, and as I read more and more, I am going to combine the hive with a nuc I overwintered and just put in a 10 frame hive. Looks like first and foremost is to make sure there is no queen, which I am terrible at, but will give it my best. Does this plan make sense? If I can't find queen, I still shake out the bees 50 yds away and do a newspaper combine with my queenright hive. This way if I missed the queen, she would be gone, and most other bees would find way back. Just a thought that just came to my head.
BTW Bjorn, I bought 2 nucs from you last August, they are doing great, I even got a little bit of honey from them last yr. and expect great things this yr., if it ever stops raining.
Thanks Scott