For now I would close the entrances down to about 1cm. Better for defence with a weak colony and helps with warmth on the cold nights. When you get a calm day where you can walk around in a Tshirt then go in and have a look at what you have left. Till then we are all guessing and as you have different bees to us we are learning too so keep us posted.
Cheers
Rob.
[quote=“Rmcpb, post:3, topic:12513”]Ihey need an unobstructed entrance, your bees will take their time and work out the new arrangemen
[/quote]
I read this on another site the other day when I had some attempted robbing. Within 30 minutes it had stopped. I couldnt believe how effective it is. Works great!!
Phil
You are a star! I did as you suggested and it seemed to have worked. Had a reduced entrance on both my nuclei from Friday morning until last night. Against all odds my girls are still buzzing away merrily and bringing in pollen. Saw some fanning last night and the air close to the one hive smelled of brewing beer (yeast, I suppose). The entrance was reduced with cloth that was conducive to ventilation, in case anyone was wondering.
I am going to inspect the nuclei on Sunday, as we have a warm weekend on the horizon. I am thinking of uniting the nuclei into my flow hive. Would that be an stupid idea? I wouldn’t be able to employ the newspaper method as the boxes are fastened to the bottom board.
My Beekeeping in South Africa book suggests various methods, of which one entails one pinches the queen from the weaker hive. I left my book at work, but will post the other methods tomorrow. I would love your feedback.
Cheerio
Deon
So I found 1 dead larva on the grass outside the one hive.
When I first saw it, it was quite wet. Looked like bright white mucus (aka snot).
I also found what looks like specs of pollen scattered on the grass.
Is this indicative of anything? Need I be concerned?
You might get away with it, but you might not. If it was me, I would consider a variation on the newspaper method. I would transfer the strongest nucleus to the lower brood box of the Flow hive. I assume that there are 5 frames? I would position all of the frames in the center of the lower box, and leave gaps at the sides (no empty frames). Then I would put a double layer of newspaper on top of this, and put the Flow super box on top without the the plastic frames. I would find and dispatch the queen in the weaker nucleus, and put the frames into the Flow super, again, positioning them in the middle.
Three days later, I would open the hive, and if the bees have made it through the newspaper (they should easily accomplish that), I would first take the brood frames from the upper box and put them next to brood frames in the lower box, moving frames of honey/pollen to the outer edge. If you have 10 frames total, and only brood space for 8, I would remove the 2 least full frames of honey and put them in the freezer for at least 48 hours to kill off any wax moths etc.
I think you would have a high chance of success if you did this, and 3 days isn’t long enough in early spring for them to build a huge amount of crazy comb. Just a thought. 
By the way, I would keep the entrance at no more than a couple of cm, even on the Flow hive, until the colony is much stronger.
If both nuclei are still going why do you want to combine them? I would let them go and build up in the nuc boxes then transfer to 8 frame hives when the nucs are full. If one is really weaker then you could combine later but so soon after that robbing is not the time to be judging the queens. Keep the entrances really small, you want them busy!
Cheers
Rob.
Very good point, Rob. Wish I had thought of that. I was just thinking of Deon’s earlier dismay at the lack of bees in the nuclei. 
I did my very first solo inspection today! The weather has been very kind and looks to be at least 20°C and up for the next week.
My reason for inspecting: I have had the nucs for two weeks now and I needed to check the general health (number of bees, the quality of the queen, brood pattern, pests) and also to check their available stores. This was also done to ascertain whether it were necessary to unite the colonies some time in the near future and also to confirm my guess as to which were the stronger hive.
Findings:
Hive One (Stronger)
There weren’t any frames in the first nuc! 
What do I do? Cut out the frames and fasten the comb to frames using rubber band? It did seem that all the comb were covered with bees.
Hive Two (Low Key
When I opened the telescopic cover, I was greeted my mold, a twig, a slug, a rather large water droplet, insect excrement and a general rotten wood smell.
The bottom of the outer cover was much of the same thing.
When I opened the inner cover I was pleasantly surprised at how many bees there were. There were, however, only 4 frames. Brace comb and crazy comb abound. 
I am very concerned that I didn’t see any pollen or nectar whatsoever. What do you think of the brood pattern:
Very pleased to see loads of eggs. I also found a fair number of SHB, what looked like a wax moth larva as well as a bee scorpion.
Exciting times indeed.
Love
Deon
Hive 1
Get some frames yesterday and rubberband the comb into them.
Fill the nuc with frames with either foundation or starter strips.
Remove he crazy comb.
Leave alone fo a week then check.
Hive 2
Remove any crazy comb.
Fill with frames and foundation or starter strips.
Leave a week and check.
Both hives - squash any SHB you see.
Cheers
Rob.
The only thing I have to add to Rob’s comments, is feed them. The brood pattern looks OK, but they are short of stores and short of comb.
Interesting to see the comb all ripped apart at the top where the honey would have been. Is it possible that the robbing has only stopped because there is no honey left?
@Clint Sadly I think that might have been the case. The frames were also incorrectly spaced, so the comes were attached at the top and therefore might have been damaged in the process of removing them.
What I forgot to mention was that I had moved Hive #2 into my flow hive and set it up as you suggested earlier. I started feeding them last night. Got quite a fright when I saw how depleted their stores were.
I did a bit of research recently into the signs of robbing as I had bees moving side to side in front of my hive and suspected I might have robbing going on. I read that robber bees will rip the comb apart to get into the cells and there is often wax debris left on the landing board. That was the detail that satisfied me that my hive wasn’t being robbed. I think it looks consistent with the damage to the tops of your frames and you also asked earlier about the debris on the ground in front of your hive. My guess is that is not pollen but the wax from those damaged cells.
Yep, I forgot to say FEED them. They have nothing in the tank so get some 1:1 syrup into them. Keep the entrances SMALL and use internal feeders, I use baggie feeders but use any type except entrance feeders. Don’t expand them too soon or they will struggle even more.
Cheers
Rob.
I agree with you, @Clint. However I touched the yellow specks in the grass and they were powdery, not wax-like. Thanks for your great feedback.
Your small suggestions have not failed me yet, thanks Rob. I had to move them in order to be able to feed them, as I do not have a nuc-sized box I could put in top of the nuc’s brood chamber. I was also concerned about the mold and dampness on the inside of the mix.
As for the stronger nuc, I would have to wait for tomorrow to be able to transfer them as the weather is a little on the cool side today.
Did I mention that I found one or two bees with K-shaped wings…
Eureka! Flow entrance reduced to two bee-sized openings on either side. Pollen is coming in like crazy and they have taken a liking to the feed! I’m enthralled! 
Going to transfer the stronger nuc into their own langstroth tomorrow.
Happy days!
Postscript: You guys are absolutely amazing. Literally couldn’t do this without you. Thank you @Dawn_SD @Dee @Rmcpb @Clint @PastorP.
Hey good luck
Keep us in the loop
Would it be necessary at this stage to try and improve ventilation by moving the core flute slider into the bottom position? Their feeder is currently covering the whole hole 
and therefore there is no air exchange between the brood box and the rest of the space. Also, keep in mind that I could only transfer 3 of the 4 available frames into the brood box, which means there’s still loads of empty frames (ergo space) in the brood box.
My dad and I made an entrance reducer for my langstroth today; can’t wait to use it tomorrow afternoon! Here are the dimentions I found on the net:
I hope everyone had a splendid Saturday.
