building up A hive

[beecowboy]

Hello  everbody I have another question my 2 package hives 1 is doing fine the other has about 1/3 the number of bees but it has a Queen and eggs and brood I have had them about a month. Would I need to maybe swap places with it and my number 4 strong hive ,and maybe put a fram of brood out of #4 into #2 ?  :?

[thegolfpsycho]

I would probably just give them a frame or 2 of capped, ready to emerge brood.  It will help them take off.

[amymcg]

You can do it either way. . .Depends on how much lifting you want to do.

[thegolfpsycho]

Yes, but swapping box locations takes all the foragers away from the strong hive.  No surplus in either colony that way.

[wingmaster]

8)         You are trying to build them up give them the frame of brood and make sure they have some pollen stores. If they don’t have any you might want to take a frame that has pollen stores from a strong hive and give it to the week one. As long as you are feeding them they will do better with more nurse bees than a strong work force. Older bees can care for brood but they do much better with nurse bees.

[Horns Pure Honey]

I would swap a frame or 2 of brood. :D