I am very new to bee keeping (South Australia). I obtained a flow hive last year but only obtained a swarm in mid to late Janurary this year. The swarm was in a “bird box” and I was able to transfer 3 sections of their existing comb onto my blank frames (using rubber bands). These combs had honey and capped brood and I was able to obtain the entire swarm (relocated from 6kms away).
Initially the swarm seemed to do well with the bees, securing the comb to the frames, discarding the rubber bands and starting a new small comb in one corner of a new frame. Early on, due to the poor season, I fed the swarm some of the honey from their original “bird box” as well as periodical surar syrup. Due to the small swarm I placed a restrictor on the entrance.
I checked the hive in mid September (after leaving it through winter) and noticed that the hive had not really progressed, despite wittnessing bees comming into the hive with legs full of pollen. There are ample large flowering trees and plants on our one acre block and surrounding area.
After being away overseas for 5 weeks, I was keen to see how the hive had progressed moving into Spring and the garden in full bloom. Alas, I was a little disheartened to find no real change since my last inspection. The bee numbers have not increased, and I could not observe any new comb or honey. There is capped brood and some pupae. I have attached photos showing the inner sections and the layout in the box.
Am I being impatient or is there some other issue?
Hi Dave, welcome to the forum. I think your colony is doing as well as can be expected, considering the size of it. Everything is relative to the number of worker bees in a colony. The more workers, the faster it will grow.
A great way to boost the number of workers would be to introduce a frame full of sealed & emerging worker brood. It’s worth noting that one frame full of brood will hold 3 frames covered in bees once they’ve all emerged.
If you can acquire such a frame from another beekeeper, that would be the best thing to do. Sealed brood, as opposed to open brood. Sealed brood does not require feeding, just kept warm, while open brood requires feeding as well as keeping it warm.
One good frame of sealed brood gives a weak colony enough bees to get the ball rolling a lot faster.
Perhaps you could consider re-queening. It being a swarm, there’s a high chance the queen is old and not as productive as a younger queen. One of the reasons for swarming is the queen slowing down.
I think its a catch twenty two scenario. For you to have a steady increase in growth you need high numbers of your oldest cast of workers. So in my view i would be looking to Requeen this colony in addition to sugar water supplimentation until two solid frames have been packed away by the colony. I find internal frame feeders work well in my experience.
Queens reduce laying for numerous reasons and its a good chance that her age is the root cause of this. But resource scarcity through an absense of a heathy forager cast presense could contribute to this also.
In addition to everything mentioned above, i would reduce your colony down to a double or single brood box orientation . This enables a small colony to efficiently manage the tempreture of the hive.
I would prioritise colony growth for this season with ample sugar water until you have 8 frames fully worked and populated - then at this point consider adding a secondary box.
Consider a more frequent inspection (fortnightly or close to it) window to fully understand the activity within the colony, this way you observe and learn what the colony conditions are telling you on a regular basis.
Bees are resilient creatures but they do benifit alot when we do step in and give them a hand.
I wish you all the best and look forward to progress updates.
Hi Dave, you’re welcome. Once you get a larger critical mass of worker bees, they might decide to supersede the old queen anyway, which I know happens a lot with my bees.
After looking at your photos again, it is obvious that your hive is out of resources. Therefore emergency feeding sugar/water might be a good option, at least until you start to see a nice honey arc above the brood.
