OK. I have never run into this before and need some advice... I need to give you some details so hopefully this wont be too drawn out
I did a full inspection of my two hives yesterday and this is what I found: (we are in a dearth but may be coming out of it. Hard to tell.)
Caucasian Hive - SBB, bottom entrance with robber screen, 1 8 frame medium, installed in late June from a very small package
This hive has a shim to make it a deep because I dropped 2 frames of brood in it from my other hive, which is a deep, to give them a boost. I fed them 1:1 since being installed and stopped about 2 weeks ago when the robbing got bad
> Nice amount of bees considering this hive started with next to nothing because most of the package drifted to another hive
> Bees flying in and out but didn't see any carrying pollen
> Robber screen seems to be working well
> The two deep frames have eggs, capped brood and larva. looks great.
> 4 of the 6 remaining medium frames are plastic foundation - hardly drawn out at all.
> 1 medium foundationless frame is about 1/4 drawn
> 1 medium foundationless frame has no comb
> I saw almost no pollen or nectar. no capped honey. what nectar I did see was mostly scattered in the 2 deep brood frames
The Italian hive is full of bees and has a lot of drawn comb, good brood and overall, looks great. However, this one also has very little capped honey and almost no pollen.
Should I go back to feeding them 1:1? I worry that the Caucasian hive will nectar bound the queen. Do I need to use some pollen patties? (I have never done that before)
I thought about moving some of the drawn, and mostly empty comb to the Caucasian hive and let the strong hive build more comb out.
Any help or suggestions would be great... These are my first hives since moving to Kentucky and I just cant seem to get them going like my bees in Alabama did...
Confused and in danger of overthinking things...
First, I would give them some drawn comb, as you suggested. Then give them pollen sub and continue feeding. They can't raise foragers without pollen.