small brood pattern

rober · March 26, 2014, 06:50:54 PM

I thought I already posted this but cannot find the thread. I checked my 4 surviving colonies today. 2 hives have lots of bees & brood. one hive had a couple of small tight patches of 3" x 4" brood & not a lot of bees. I'm hoping the queen is just not laying more eggs than there are bees to care for. the 4th hive had small tight patches of brood but looked like it was mostly drone brood. could this queen have run out of sperm. she was a supercedure queen in a swarm I caught last year. I did find both queens. would feeding at this time help them build up faster?

buzzbee · March 26, 2014, 06:58:41 PM

You've answered your question. She will only lay what they can cover! And yes feeding can help if it's not too cold. Bees an not forage and do housekeeping at the same time,so feeding can lighten the load. Be sure your entrance is reduced if this is a small colony.

rober · March 26, 2014, 07:29:22 PM

what about the other hive with the drone brood? failing sperm supply?

10framer · March 26, 2014, 08:02:14 PM

Quote from: rober on March 26, 2014, 07:29:22 PM
what about the other hive with the drone brood? failing sperm supply?

more likely a failed supersedure. i lost a hive over the winter (actually combined them) that had half cut down queen cells that looked old.

rober · March 26, 2014, 08:14:01 PM

hopefully the fact that there is a queen will keep the hive from going laying workers. I should have access to a queen in early April. either a year old queen from a friend who is re-queening or a new queen from leftovers from a club buy. because of winter losses there should be some extras.

jayj200 · March 29, 2014, 08:42:35 PM

if you combine

MAKE DARN SURE THERE IS NO QUEEN IN ONE OF THE BOXES

rober · March 29, 2014, 08:57:26 PM

follow up..... it's supposed to be close to 70 tomorrow. I'll check the brood then to see if anything has changed. I did find both queens

rober · April 01, 2014, 12:57:35 PM

went thru the hives again. the brood increased slightly with the population on the one weak hive. so that hive is probably ok. I'm also feeding it. the drone laying queen is still laying drone brood only. I'm on the fence about what to do with it. the population is dwindling. I think my options are to either snuff the queen & combine the hive with the other weak hive or re-queen it. queens are supposed to arrive here on april 8th.
I'm also thinking about putting my strong queen in a nicot breeding cage on an empty frame for 2-3 days ( in her own hive ). at that point I'd release her & put that frame into the drone laying hive. fresh eggs would keep the bees from going laying workers. BUT-would that make the hive less likely to accept a new queen? can y'all hear the gears in my head spinning? I'm thinking the combining of the 2 weak hives is the safest option.

rober · April 02, 2014, 11:29:58 AM

no opinions??

HomeSteadDreamer · April 02, 2014, 12:39:32 PM

If you only have two hives.

I'd snuff the drone layer and requeen. But I wouldn't snuff til the new queens are here. Also I might take a frame of brood from the weak hive and put in the dwindling hive. I'd take a frame of honey and pollen and give it to the laying hive. The queen can lay more eggs she just isn't cause they can't take care of them. So if you take some eggs then she'll lay more.

If you have more than two hives. I'd snuff the bad queen now and combine to boost up the numbers in the other hive.

Wolfer · April 02, 2014, 10:17:40 PM

I'd snuff the drone layer and combine with your weak hive. This will give her the bees she needs to build up strong. Which she will do pronto. After the blackberries bloom I'd pull her and three frames of mixed brood and put in a nuc.

Let the hive raise a queen. The queen in the nuc will need a bigger box shortly.

I've raised several queens earlier than the blackberry bloom. Every one failed before fall.
Here that can be the first week of may or the third week of may.

I'm just north of Springfield.

Woody Roberts

rober · April 03, 2014, 01:04:51 PM

since i'll still have 3 hives I snuffed the drone layer & combined those bees with the weak hive. when the new queens arrive I'm requeening all 3 hives. 2 hives were swarms from last year & the weak hive's queen never really did much last year. she came from a nuc from a local breeder. 2 of the 4 nucs I got from him did not survive thru sept. & a 3rd perished during the winter. others I talked to who bought these nucs had similar experiences. none of them ever built up & they were side by side with others hives that did well.