i have one strong hive(hive 1) and one sort of weak hive(hive 2). both have deeps on the bottom then mediums. hive 1 has 2 meds and hive 2 has 1 med. hive 2 has no activety in med so i put 2 med frames from h 1 in h2. both frames are mostly full of uncapped honey, 1 frame has maybe a 1/4 of one side with capped brood. here is the problem, h1 i think is bordering on being honey bound. even the deep has more honey than i think it should but has lots of capped brood to. i did see eggs in the little space that is available. i havent seen any queen cells untill today in hive 1. its got one fully capped queen cell on the bottom of a deep frame and thats it. there arent even any cups started that i could see. my question is can i do any thing else to help this hive? and what does that one queen cell indicate? h1 seems very crowded but they havent started in 2nd med. should i flip the 2 meds since i believe i took all the brood out of the med box when i put the 2 frames in h2?
One solitary queen cell is usually an indication of supercedure regardless of where it is. The hive does sound honey bound. They may be blaming the honey bound condition on the queen--hence the supercedure cell. Hives become honey bound for 2 reasons: 1. They have been overfed or 2. they have entered a heavy honey flow without ample room to hold the harvest and start filling the brood cells as soon as the pupae hatch.
Put in a couple of empty frames or frames with just starter strips in place of some of the honey frames--not complete sheets of foundation. Place them between the outside honey frame and brood frames The bees will get to work and the queen should start to lay in the comb before it is fully drawn. This will free up the honey bound brood chamber.
You can either start a nuc with the frame containing the queen cell and the honey frames you remove or let nature take it's course. Then, If the bees build another queen cell I would let them do it because they are dissatisified with the queen for other reasons.
thanks brian, i didnt think of that(nuc). i actually have an empty nuc sitting in my basement. how many frames should i move into the nuc? the one that the queen cell is on is 3/4 honey 1/4 brood. should i do two frames from hive 1 and 3 empty frames? or some other combination?
thanks again
I set up my nucs using 2 brood frames, one of honey, and 2 of foundation.
the second foundation frame is sometimes replaced with a feeder for a short period and then the frame of foundation replaced. If you have a lot of honey in the brood frames I would opt out of the honey frame entirely and use several brood frames--even if I had to barrow one from another hive.
.
Bye a new queen to the hive 2.
.
Finsky,
Your solution is the quick and easy way out--think about how much he will learn.
Quote from: Brian D. BrayFinsky,
Your solution is the quick and easy way out--think about how much he will learn.
If you have weak queen, there is not much to be learned :P
One advice: Change it! Bye better. Don't try to raise your own from 2 hives.