Here is what i did...Suggestions?? Helpies

DayValleyDahlias · May 23, 2008, 09:04:19 PM

Picture this.

2 brood deeps, a shallow super, and a deep brood.

Deep brood 1 and 2 are from last season. I do believe the swarm I caught may have come from this hive. The swarm hive was doing poorly so I combined it with the 2 parent hive deeps.

I took it all apart today. Looked into brood deep one looked crappy, a few capped drones.

Deep brood 2, looked spotty too, no eggs that I could see, spotty drone

The 3rd brood deep which housed the swarm. which had no eggs, no capped brood and lot's of drones 2 weeks ago when Idid the combine, now has capped brood!

I took the hive with brood and put it on the bottom, then I took out some honey from the other 2 deeps and put in some frames with wax foundation.

Did I do ok? Is there a way I can consolidate the 3 deeps into 2? Should I give them a frame of brood from my other hive to help strengthen them? It would be a medium frame in that case...

Help Help back to bees!

Brian D. Bray · May 23, 2008, 09:53:17 PM

Adding the swarm atop the parent hive inverted the brood chamber. The queen from the swarm stayed up in the box she was captured in--not an uncommon thing when combining hives. Moving the frames from the top super down into the bottom deep was the correct move and should put things back to normal--or as normal as things get.

doak · May 23, 2008, 10:20:21 PM

First, Try not to put a medium frame in a deep body, "If" it can be helped. (if that is what you mean)
Next, are you talking about combining 3 colonies into two?
If so, and one does not have a queen, just divvy the contents equally.
If it is 3 deep on the hive you are talking about, check to see if there is enough frames without any honey and/or brood, to take out and put the occupied frames in the two.
End up with a spare empty box with frames.
I do this all the time when downsizing time comes

You can shift things around quiet a bit when a colony is in trouble as long as you don't change the "brood" nest around much, if any at all.

In other words, what I am saying is do what ever has to be done to put one in straits, if it is messed up.
It is much easier to straiten up a new small mess than a big one later, like when some of the frames/boxes get filled with honey.
hope this helps, and I am glad you're O.K. :)doak

DayValleyDahlias · May 23, 2008, 10:33:06 PM

Oh right I think I can do that now...I think I can consolidate Box 2 & 3...and leave the box with brood alone.
When I take frames out that are kinda empty of brood and honey in order to get this done, do I shake the bees in front of the hive? I sort of did that with some frames today...

Thanks for all your prayers by the way!

doak · May 23, 2008, 11:10:28 PM

That will do, just shake them off.
doak

JP · May 24, 2008, 01:01:42 AM

Quote from: DayValleyDahlias on May 23, 2008, 10:33:06 PM
Oh right I think I can do that now...I think I can consolidate Box 2 & 3...and leave the box with brood alone.
When I take frames out that are kinda empty of brood and honey in order to get this done, do I shake the bees in front of the hive? I sort of did that with some frames today...

Thanks for all your prayers by the way!

Instead of shaking them in front of the hive try and shake them into the hive.

...JP

DayValleyDahlias · May 24, 2008, 10:38:02 AM

Ok JP I will shake them into the hive...or at least try to...

Ross · May 24, 2008, 11:23:02 AM

Sounds like you have way too much space in that hive for the amount of bees. I would drop back to one deep until the fill it, two at the most. Don't add more space until the hive is packed. Adding space too soon is the number one mistake new beekeepers make. It stresses the colony to have to patrol that much space. They can't warm it sufficiently in colder climates. SHB invade and are unchecked. You get the picture. It's like living in a gymnasium without a pup tent. You just can't be comfortable in all the space.

DayValleyDahlias · May 24, 2008, 02:54:15 PM

Yeah thats why I want to combine them, I just didn't know quite how to do it, I will today. I ended up with 3, as I a combine...I just needed to know how to consolidate, and I will do just that. Thanks

Ross · May 24, 2008, 03:35:15 PM

Just remove any under-utilized frames and back fill with better frames until you can remove a box. When combining, use newspaper between the two boxes to start, but after a couple of days, you can consolidate frames without a problem. You can shake bees from frames into the box to clear the frames of stagglers.

DayValleyDahlias · May 24, 2008, 05:06:46 PM

Okay, I just finished the task. I removed the top box which was a deep ( remember they were 3 deep high due to a combine 2 weeks ago )...I just got smoke got brave and shook and brushed them into the second deep. I removed all frames, one was laden with honey, they have plenty of honey in the other 2 deeps.

What on earth do I do with all of these drawn deeps? I have some in the freezer, I supposed I can freeze some for Winter??

I am going to inspect in 1 week and do a powdered sugar shake on all 3 hives.

I also added a 3rd med brood to the package bees...

doak · May 24, 2008, 05:46:26 PM

Freeze if you have room. if it is capped honey you can process it. If you wasn't feeding sugar/corn syrup
doak

Ross · May 25, 2008, 03:34:49 PM

hopefully you'll need to put them back on the hive in a few weeks.

DayValleyDahlias · May 25, 2008, 03:58:03 PM

If I have the 2 deeps, and if they do build up, I would like to add shallow honey supers for them when it comes time. I have frozen the frames that contained some capped drone to kill them off. I was working on regressing these bees, so I didn't want to use the large cell drawn out for brood.

Funny but the hive I whittled down to 2 deeps, looks much more active today...I did give them some mega bee bee food which I had on hand...we'll see what happens...