One of my hives came through the winter and was very strong when I left for a vacation on April 26. When I returned on May 4, it had dwindled to almost nothing. I pulled it apart and saw no sign of a queen. Within a few days there was no longer any activity at all, and I used the base for another hive. Today I went to clean up the frames and noticed a small cluster - less than a hundred bees. I looked closer and found a few dozen capped brood cells and a queen. I put that frame in a nuc with a frame of honey on each side, then moved a strong hive over and put the nuc in its place so it could collect some foragers as they returned.
Anything else I should do? Is there much of a chance that it will build up enough to reach critical mass?
Check it again in about 10 days. by then there should be a few eggs and a little brood if the queen is laying. She may not lay very many to begin with, she only puts out what the bees can tend to. If you do have another colony, Take a frame of all capped brood, shake all the bees off and give it to the small one. Capped brood does not need nursing and as soon as they hatch they will become nurse bees shortly. Also if you have it give them a frame of honey/pollen, or give them one to one sugar water. :) d2
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I used old honey as winter food. I think that half of hives got a bad nosema from it and they dwindled seemingly during long spring and cannot nurse new bees.
I took several queen from those hives and I gove new bees them them. Then I added frames of emerging bees when I had affor to it.
Now, a month later all those 5 hives have one box of brood. I wonder why queen did not become sick.
Sometimes I ougth to bring new bees and forager to get to balance the larva feeding. They had much nursers but not enough pollen.