dec 21 added new queen to hive, since then the hive has produced very little to no honey, and certainly no capped honey.
have fed during winter, placed capped brood in to build up and even some capped honey frames. queen is producing brood but not many so i feel it is still weak hive… question: is the queen a ‘lemon’ or should i give her another year to mature.
the other couple hives going well and harvesting honey so there is enuf food around… this queen seems to do the minimum and encourages her tribe to do likewise. should i replace her???
Hi Dennis, where’s Cottles Bridge?
If you think that the queen is a dud, you can always replace her. What I do is let the colony make a new queen with brood from a high performing queen. Just manipulate the brood frames in such a fashion that the bees can’t make a queen using brood from the dud queen.
1 Like
Hi cottles, if you are requeening becuase the hive is weak, or the population is now low. It would be best to pack down the hive and allow the colony to build back up again. It is likely the Flow Super is going to be a stress if they are not using this and trying to get themselves established once more. –Kieran
ta info altho it is just a brood box with about 1/2 being used even after year of nurturing. amazingly no shb yet… altho found in stronger hives🤔
When did you first add bees to the brood box of this hive?
When did you add the Flow Super?
Im getting more concerned that it might just be too much too soon for this colony. –Kieran
oops, think i might hav misled
there is no flow super on the brood box, certainly. it enuf ladies, brood not honey for that.
it is just one box with 8 frames, even the middle frames hav not lots brood
I’ve heard some queens do better once they are packed down into a nuc box. If your hive is struggling maybe you could try using a wooden nuc or create a solid divider in your brood box. Once she gets her mojo you can give her the full box again.
@cottles It sounds like you might need to look at really compacting the colony, do you have a nuc box like Karby suggested, or can you put a solid divider into the box to reduce the space. At this point you really want to ensure pests cant take hold.