New Bees

[.30WCF]

im a new beekeeper 1 year . if it was my hive i would take a frame of brood and eggs and shake off all the bees and build a screen cage about 6x10 to cover some brood and honey and eggs. and install this in the troubled hive after one week there should be some new bees bound to the new queen and some brood . this will serve to stop laying workers and cause the new queen to be accepted the cage can then be removed. i was at the point of doing this [ built a cage and priced a local queen]  decided to wait a few more days and finally found some capped brood and realized they were ok.

If I understand what your suggesting, it is to introduce a new queen and add some brood in the mean time to stave off the laying workers?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[.30WCF]

One hive is pretty darn full. I did a brood frame swap to boost a queenless hive , so the only real empty frames are a couple foundation frames in the brood chamber. It?s August in NC. Do I just manage and pinch queen cells if they pop up or add another honey super? All I have is foundation, so I could checkerboard the frames in the mediums.
I do have a top feeder on even with the honey because the hive next to it has several undrawn frames and no queen. I have a frame with 20 capped queen cells and inserted another brood frame in yesterday. So, both hives have top feeders to protect the queenless hive while they build. However, both hives have one each, full medium super of honey. Maybe both hives need to lose the feeders.
Please help.
There are two questions in there somewhere.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[.30WCF]

I?ll try to clarify that.

Queen right hive is out of room. It has a feeder on to deter robbing the hive beside it. It?s August. It?s late in the year.
To add a super or not to add a super. That is the question. Is it too late to expect them to draw and fill another medium?

Second question is, with both hives having honey, do I need to feed? Generally I would think no, but it?s August, one hive is weak and needs to draw a few frames. I also don?t want them to deplete the winter stores if they each only have one box of honey.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[.30WCF]

welcome to the obsession. i noticed in your pic of eyelet tool an end frame that apears to have tacks in the end. are these spacers? 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/NSVyV5cQEBs


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ben Framed]

> ?ll try to clarify that.

Queen right hive is out of room. It has a feeder on to deter robbing the hive beside it. It?s August. It?s late in the year.
To add a super or not to add a super. That is the question. Is it too late to expect them to draw and fill another medium? <

I do not really understand your whole situation without going back and reading. But if you are trying to achieve a certain goal with this hive such as converting into a cell starter or finisher, then feeding may be ok but there is still the question of adulterated honey. To produce more honey, then my opinion is no, do not feed. If this hive is full of honey, all you are doing is adding adulterated honey (sugar syrup) to your hive. How will you know the real honey from the sugar syrup honey?  How long has this feeder been on? You may have already collected a certain amount of (sugar syrup) that you are calling honey in your frames?

If you have collected REAL honey, in those full frames, why not extract this honey, leaving empty frames for the use of a fall flow? The empty frames can be stored until needed, perhaps until golden rod kicks in?

[.30WCF]

I don?t know what I?m doing. My goal is to survive the winter my first year with bees.  I don?t know what a cell starter or finisher is.
I?m sure it?s mostly sugar syrup honey. I haven?t harvested any this first season, and had no plans to.
It feels like I?ve been fighting with bees that want to die all summer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ben Framed]

Overcrowding frames with plenty of sources can lead to swarming.

[The15thMember]

I do not really understand your whole situation without going back and reading.

Just a recommendation, .30WCF, you may want to start a new thread if you have a specific question.  I think you will get better help that way because people will not have to go back and read through 8 pages of comments in order to understand your situation. 

[.30WCF]

I found a queen today in the hive I split on 7/4. There are new eggs. I had just added a frame of brood about every two weeks since the split. Once the bees were emerging I would trade the hive next to it an empty frame for a mixed frame.
Today was the first time I went in and didn?t see any queen cells. I looked around and found eggs, and then a new queen.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk