Is it wise to combine 2 weak hives??

[annette]

I have a hive from 2 swarms I combined last month. Well they have been slow going and this past Sunday I checked them out thoroughly and things aren't looking so good.  Very little honey (I gave them a frame from another hive), Hardly any brood, mostly spotted brood on a few frames.  No eggs, no larva. They are very peaceful and gentle bees. I gave them a frame of eggs and they did not make a queen cell.

I have my friend Shawna who has a hive in a similar condition. Is it wise to combine my hive with hers?? What would be accomplished except to boost the population at this point until we can figure out how to help the hive?

My hive is one medium, and hers is 2 mediums.

All help is greatly appreciated.

Annette

[AllenF]

If you combine, they may make it through the winter.   Are you feeding or are they bringing in any food?   How many frames of bees do you have now?

[annette]

My hive is one medium, 10 frames and there are about 7 frames filled with bees

My friend Shawna's hive is 2 mediums, and they have a nice population with both supers filled with bees.

I have not fed them, just been giving them frames of honey from my strong hives. We have a flow still going on, and they have not brought in any nectar on their own.

[Sparky]

They probably are not strong enough to do a bunch of foraging so they work at hive strength and defence. If you still have a flow and combine them now with the additional numbers it should boost the intake of nectar once the two have settled into each other.

[Kathyp]

you might also consider grabbing a frame of brood from your strong hive to boost numbers.  if you can find a frame with both capped and uncapped brood that will help hold them and give them some boost right away.

sounds like they  need a new queen.

why not combine them with your own hive? 

[annette]

you might also consider grabbing a frame of brood from your strong hive to boost numbers.  if you can find a frame with both capped and uncapped brood that will help hold them and give them some boost right away.

sounds like they  need a new queen.

why not combine them with your own hive? 

My friend Shawna has only 1 other hive and I want to help her go into winter with at least 2 hives.

Just helped Shawna examine her weak hive and lo and behold we found a beautiful queen and many frames of eggs. So I am going into my weak hive and will try and find this queen and get rid of her before we combine the 2 hives. And yes we will add a frame of brood to boost the population. We will probably also switch places with the strong hive to get the foragers from that hive as well.

Thanks for the response

annette