Help me with my bees!

Hey guys! I bought 2 beehives from a local beekeeper 3 days ago. I checked on them the first day and they had 6 frames full of brood each so I added 4 frames with wax foundation. I always check on them and love to sit nest to them and see their activity. I’m noticing that I have a very strong hive with lots of traffic at the entrance but the other one hasnt got that much traffic(I only see 2 or 3 bees coming in and out every couple of seconds).And Im worried about this hive. Is it normal?
Btw here in lebanon it is the beginning of summer and its when the flow hive begins. This picture was taken at noon.

1 Like

Alexandre, when checking the ‘weak’ hive did you check for the queen ? And do both hives have the same number of bees ?
From my experience, one hive can be active more than an other during a certain time of the day. I don’t think the bees activity on the door directly reflects their health/number/activity.
I suggest you wait a while, maybe some brood will hatch since your hives are relatively new.
And if you wait some more you can, on further inspections, look for new eggs to see if your Queen is laying.
Anyhow, the bee traffic at the door doesn’t necessarily reflect the hive’s overall health, at least in my opinion.

1 Like

There is a lot of capped brood and on the first day I was abke to see the queen. In 4 days I will do an inspection and check again. Thank you joe for your opinion!

1 Like

I think checking on the hive later on might be a good idea.
Anytime Alexandre !

2 Likes

I passed by my 2 colonies 10 minutes ago and they were very active the 2 of them. I think that the other colony may be very active after noon.

2 Likes

Don’t over do the inspections, once a fortnight is enough and if you do more you will not be helping the bees as each time you do an inspection is unsettling to the colony.
Even just lifting the roof off for a quick look will disrupt the bees in their work for about 4 hours, doing a full inspection it takes at least 24 hours for the colony to settle down again. Have a look at the entrance before you do an inspection then look again after you have closed the hive up.
Cheers

@Batroun_beekeeper, hi I’m only a new beekeeper. This comment is for @Peter48 too, I like to do any checking on my bees later in the day, so that they don’t loose to much of the day getting over the intrusion. Just 1 major inspection since getting my nuc (now 4weeks go), when the seller dropped by to look at my hive, and show and tell me how they were going, all good but not ready for flow hive box, and not likely this season. Yet even though he moved 2 empty frames (1 from each end of the brood box) into the centre, by 2 hrs later (he was here at 1PM), the bees were back out foraging in about the same number, as before he came. It was the next day that surprised me, as the number coming and going from the hive had roughly doubled from what were doing so prior to the inspection taking place, and still are. Fingers crossed :crossed_fingers:, it looks like I have a reasonably calm hive, I can lift off the roof (to check how the sugar syrup is going), also to check the plastic bottom tray, my bees just don’t seem to care. Even on 2 occasions when I went to lift the roof off, the wooden plate that’s on top of the brood box had become stuck to the roof, even that didn’t seem to stir them up.
Cheers

1 Like