Weak hive in Seattle

[Playapixie]

Hi!  I'm a first year beekeeper in Seattle, WA. 

I have two hives that were both started at the end of April with packaged bees.  They are in all 8-frame mediums.

One hive has done great and has completely filled 1 and 3/4 medium boxes with  honey.  The queen's laying pattern seems organized and there are always lots of capped and uncapped larvae.  Yay!

The other hive, well, not so much.  They weren't strong enough by the time the blackberry flowered to bring in much honey.  They've got some,   but maybe 1/4 of what the other hive did.  Hive inspections show a laying queen (I've spotted her a few times this year) but it seems like her hive only ever has about half the brood of the other hive.  I see eggs and brood of various ages, but nowhere near the number of the other hive.  Traffic at the entrance is only around half or maybe even a third of the stronger hive.

Neither hive shows any symptoms of disease that I can tell (no k-wing, no deformed wings, no varroa on the bottom board, no feces staining...)  But I do know for sure that some of my bees are infected with the zombie fly parasite (bees caught at light trap have produced larvae and flies.)

So I'm wondering what do I do about the weaker hive?  I've been hoping they re-queen themselves, and I did find a queen cup (with no egg) on some new foundationless comb this week.  Should I assume the problem is a weak queen?  Should I let them take care of it themselves?  Should I re-queen?  Do nothing?

And come fall, should I give them honey from the stronger hive to winter with?  Or feed them sugar water?

Thanks for your advice/suggestions!
Dawn


Dawn Bustanoby
Seattle, WA
http://www.playapixie.org

[GSF]

It could be that they may have already re-queened once and are behind schedule so to speak. If the queen isn't a good girl, pinch her. Then take a frame of eggs, capped  brood, nurse bees, ect, from the strong hive and give them a boost. Notch at the bottom a couple of the cells that have eggs in them to encourage a queen cell.

[sc-bee]

I would re-queen with a new queen. It will take 7 weeks for you to see new bees from a new hive raised queen. Do you have that much time to play with in Wa?

[cao]

This may be the more conservative approach.  I would say that if the queen has a good solid laying pattern(just smaller in area than the other hive), it might be that they just may not have enough bees to care for more brood.  If that's the case a frame of capped brood from the stronger hive would add fresh bees and once hatched would give her more room to lay.  IMO It may be that the weak hive may have just gotten off to a slow start.  If the added bees doesn't help, I would then think about requeening. 

And come fall, should I give them honey from the stronger hive to winter with?  Or feed them sugar water?

If the stronger hive has extra, I would give them the honey.  Honey is always better for the bees than sugar water.  Just make sure that you don't take too much from the strong hive.

[rookie2531]

You could also, do a walk away split. Have 3 queens laying and by end of season, pick the better ones and pinch the bad one. Combine back into 2. And have more brood frames and probably more drawn comb.

But if you think its too late for that, I like cao's thought.

[Eric Bosworth]

If you can find a source of local queens requeen with local queens. I recommend requeening package bees with local queens anyway.