Hi everyone!
I am a bit mystified by one of my hives.
I set up two, 8 frame langstroth hives at the edges of my boss' hayfields. I got two Italian bee packages April 19th from a local supplier in Baltimore, and installed them the next morning, pretty much the way that I had seen it done on Youtube and in the various bee manuals that I've gotten my hands on. Both packages were almost entirely installed with maybe a few stragglers left in the boxes. I pinned the queen cages as I had seen done in between two center frames with the screen sides out so that the queens could be fed by the nurse bees, pulled the cork from the candy end and stuck a pin through the candy plug to get things started. Per the oldster that I got the bees from, I also fed them a mix of 1:1 sugar water in both hives via the zip lock bag method.
When I came back a week later, one of the hives seemed to be doing great! There was comb being drawn out, massive amounts of bees, capped cells, and I even saw some brood cells. In that one, I spotted the queen, too (marked queen.) So, it seems to be doing great. I gave them another bag of sugar mix, closed them up, and went to the next one.
This second hive (which is a little further up the hill and has the entrance pointed in a different direction from the other hive) seemed to have significantly fewer bees, and not nearly as much comb drawn out, and the comb seemed to be either empty or honey, but they had also gone through a gallon of feed, just like the other hive. I couldn't find the queen, but I was pressed for time, so I gave them another bag, closed them up.
Two weeks later, I checked on both hives again, and, again, the one hive is doing massively well. They're filling up frames with pollen, brood, and honey, and I saw the queen again on one of the center frames. Since they had nearly filled all the frames, I added another box of frames, and didn't give them more feed, since there are a lot of flowers out now, and they seemed to be doing pretty well for themselves.
Then, I went to the other hive. It seems like it hasn't gotten any bigger except for perhaps a little bit. I wasn't seeing any brood, and couldn't find the queen. I am worried she may have died somehow? I checked both queen cages when I removed them, and both the candy plugs were eaten away with neither queen nor nurse bees inside. I assumed she'd been released.
Could the stronger hive be robbing the weaker hive? If so, how much should I separate them? I didn't see a whole lot of activity around the smaller hive. My boyfriend suggests that perhaps bees are just returning to the larger hive, even if they belong to the smaller hive, since it is further down the hill? Essentially, my hives are in a wild raspberry and blackberry patch in the upper corner of a HUGE hayfield at the edge of a wooded area. The stronger hive is facing down the hill, while the weaker hive is more or less facing across the field. I was told to stagger them to make it easier for bees to go back to their own hive.
If the smaller hive did somehow become queenless, would it be possible to purchase a new queen and install her? I have heard you can take frames of brood from a stronger hive and transpose it into a weaker hive.
I tried to post some pictures, but apparently, I am too new to do this. :)
Any thoughts would be excellent!
Thanks
Jude
Jarnvithr Textile Studio and Chandlery
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You may have had a poorly breed queen. It happens sometimes, or there is always the possibility she was injured.
Do you have entrance reduces on? It is quite possible for a stronger hive to rob a weaker one. It is also possible feral bees in the vicinity robbed your hive too.
Thank you! I will send an email right now. :)
Yes, I do have an entrance reducer on both hives, and they're pointed away from each other.
Would it be worth it to try and save the weaker hive by maybe requeening?
I looked at your pictures on fb. It is hard to tell much but it seems very weak. Since you have another hive to luckily compare it too you know what brood etc looks like. Could have been several issues including a queen failure. You may have also had drifting from the weak hive to the strong queenright hive. How many frames of bees do you estimate in the weak hive. That to me would determine if I were going to shake them out or newspaper combine and pick up the extra box or try and requeen. Also if you think the strong hive can spare a frame of brood with eggs and larvae give it too the weak hive. If queenless in about three to four days or sooner they should start queen cells. This if there is any doubt should tell you if the weak hive is queenless. Sounds like it is but would be nice to know if you plan on requeening.
On a side note you mentioned that one hive had a marked queen. Were both queens marked. You are finding the marked queen in the strongr hive so I think if you had a queen you could spot it in the weaker hive.
No brood after 3 weeks. You definitely do not have a functioning queen. I would tell the oldster you got them from and see if he will replace the queen or at least look at the hive for you and give his opinion. I imagine he wants you to be successful just as much as you want to be.
Quote from: iddee on May 17, 2014, 11:13:53 PM
No brood after 3 weeks. You definitely do not have a functioning queen.
Agreeded....... Functioning key word. Most likely no queen if marked and you do not spot her.
Thanks for all the advice! I really appreciate it.
I was sort of at a loss as to what to do about it. This is my first time keeping bees, and I'd hate to have a hive fail so early.
There are a few people in my area that have mated queens for sale, so I do have access to getting a new queen if the place I bought it from won't replace her. Is it worth trying to do a new queen? Or should I just move brood over from the other hive and see what happens?
That depends on how many bees are left. If 3 frames or more are covered in bees, I would try a new queen. If not, it would likely be a waste of time.
If your strong hive has enough brood, that would be one way, but you are behind on time for them to make a new queen and get her bred before the population dies out. You could rob some nurse bees from the strong hive to keep things going. But, the best and fastest will be either get another queen or package. OR just combine the two hives.