We came back from 5 weeks away and one of the colonies has dwindled to a smallish cluster over 2 frames. I think they may have starved to death. I located the Queen and there’s 2 small clusters of capped brood on the 2 centre frames. I left them with 2 frames of honey in the super but I don’t think the bees have been up there since I treated them with formic pro at the start of winter (3 months ago). The metal QE seems to have rusted so ive removed this. I am not confident I can save the colony but was thinking to add some sugar water in a zip lock bag - if I put it above the super will they go up? Or should I remove the super & add the sugar water? It’s the start of spring this month and will be 29⁰C tomorrow! There’s plenty of flowers in bloom…
The queen is 2 years old. My other hive is doing well.
Any advice on what I should do would be welcome.
Feeling a bit bummed at failing the bees this winter…
Hi Li, sorry this happened but from the sounds of it your bees haven’t been overrun by pests in their compromised state, so that’s lucky! The first thing to do is remove the super. Anytime you think you may need to feed your bees, supers shouldn’t be on. Think of those as opposing conditions, the first is what we do when a colony is weak and the second is for when it’s strong.
You could consider putting this colony into a nucleus box until it strengthens, but that depends on how fast your spring flow is coming on. With support the colony could rebound quickly.
Do an alcohol wash to test for varroa to see if you need to treat again. Test your other colony too.
Once you establish whatever pest control is needed, give one or two frames of brood from your strong colony to this weak one. Make sure there is plenty of capped worker brood but also eggs and young larvae, and nurse bees still on. Reduce the entrance and give them that baggie of sugar water.
Check on them every week to ten days to see if egg laying is going well, and look for supercedure cells. Do stay on top of varroa testing and pest control, and replace the sugar water if they’re taking it in at a fast rate. Once it sits around and you don’t see many bees on it you can stop feeding.
