Author Topic: Losing hive....at what point do I give up.  (Read 1716 times)

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Offline joeybrowne

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Losing hive....at what point do I give up.
« on: May 18, 2017, 06:55:42 pm »
Hey all,
I looked into one (one of two) of my hives today and noticed only approx. 2k bees at most.  The queen is not laying eggs and I noticed quite a few dead bees on the comb.
My other hive is really strong.  I could possibly take a couple frames of brood from the strong hive and put it in the weak hive and hopefully get a queen.  Is this even a possibility or is this hive lost.  I should have noticed soon but the population was dropping so gradually that it kinda crept up on me.
I know I have to do something soon or the hive will definitely be lost.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

Offline Wandering Man

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Re: Losing hive....at what point do I give up.
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2017, 07:22:17 pm »
I have done that with a nuc that had about the same number of bees.

I didn't shake in enough bees, however, and the small hive beetles slimed a couple of frames.

So, I cleaned it up, and added more frames and bees. It took a while, but we've got the nuc into a 10 frame deep and the bees are working on a medium super now.

If the queen is not laying, I'd replace her.

Keep in mind, I can't stand to throw out an old pair of tennis shoes, so my advice my be slanted.
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Offline CBT

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Re: Losing hive....at what point do I give up.
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2017, 07:48:56 pm »
The dead bees on the comb. Are there heads in the cells, are there dead bees all inside the hive.?

Offline joeybrowne

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Re: Losing hive....at what point do I give up.
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2017, 08:23:59 pm »
Yeah, some have their heads inside the comb and some don't.  Does that not mean they're starving?  I have sugar syrup there for them...

Offline Perry

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Re: Losing hive....at what point do I give up.
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2017, 09:06:19 pm »
If the queen isn't laying Joey (be certain), pinch her and shift a couple frames of brood over, making sure you have eggs on there. They will raise a new queen. Finding queens right now is tough, the imports are all in and local queens won't be available for a while yet.
I am just starting to see swarm cells now.
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Offline Barbarian

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Re: Losing hive....at what point do I give up.
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2017, 01:35:21 am »
Are the bees taking the sugar syrup ? The syrup may need to be in close contact with the cluster. A contact feeder right above the cluster would be my choice.

With some dwindling colonies, they do not pick up no matter what you do. A lot of effort which might be better spent with other colonies.
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Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Losing hive....at what point do I give up.
« Reply #6 on: May 19, 2017, 02:55:26 am »
Another option is to combine with your strong hive.  That way you have one big colony.  If all goes well, you can do a split when local queens become available.