The previous message to Jeff … posted with a little edit
Blockquote
I went into a worser situation w.r.t my weak hive. Not sure why the hive is not recovering - the
hive came down to a lonely queen with few bees hanging on to honey on the frames.
You can count the remaining bees… Sad state here
So I kept calling the beekeeper who promised me to get few frames. He has given up and told me that he moved to another migration site unplanned.
I somehow came to a conclusion that this hive will be lost forever.
Although I fed pollen and sugar syrup, the left over bees where not taking the feed and the bees started to vanish
I did not observe and dead bees around the box. Not sure where the bees have gone
Today morning I checked the hive once again, I found the queen hovering over a frame with few countable bees around, not bothered about the pollen or sugar syrup.
I could not do anything more than rob a patchy brood from one of the hives and transferred into this.
The brood is not so great neither the hive, that I robbed, had a great store of any brood.
However there are good amount of worker bees going in and out.
My question is with this scant brood that I transferred to weak hive, will the bees on this frame kill the queen?
Why is the queen failing inspite of feeding? Why and where to the bees from this hive are disappearing?
I could have robbed another frame from the 3rd hive, but wanted to check if I will lose these transferred bees too.
The other 2 hives are not strong enough yet. There are hardly 2 brood frames in the hive that I robbed the frame in the picture
I will check the second hive tomorrow to take another frame out.
Meanwhile in the weak hive, will the newly transferred bees survive? Because I have not seen them on pollen that I left on the top of the frame or in the feeder.
I will leave a small qty of fresh sugar in the feeder?
Yes, the spring is around, the other 2 hives seem to have a good storage of “pollen”
Any tips to save the bees/brood that are transferred yesterday to weak hive?
Thank you so much
Edit at 15:16 IST
I observed that the “bees on the transferred frame” began to feed on the natural pollen. I gave a a little freshly made sugar syrup in the feeder. I will check again tomorrow.
Hi Usha, I guess it depends on the ago of the transferred bees. For example: recently emerged and nurse bees will live for 5-7 weeks I’m guessing. Older field bees a lot less.
Bees don’t need to consume pollen & honey, or sugar unless they are using it as a form of energy, or to feed to brood. Pollen is mainly for brood.
Hopefully with spring approaching, the bees will boost their colonies so that you’ll be able to split them going forward.
Hope you are doing good
last week I transferred one more “patchy” brood frame from the second “better” hive into the weak hive … fed pollen … the robbing persisted.
Today I observe that slowly the 1 or bees are flying out of the weak hive. May be good days ahead for the hive.
I shall update again after a couple of weeks.
Pls let me know if there is anything more I can do to increase the pace of recovery.
Hi Usha, I’m not sure what you mean by “the robbing persisted”.
The only thing I can think of to increase the pace of recovery is more brood & nurse bees. This is assuming that hive beetles & varroa is under control.
If your bees are in a good area with plenty of spring flowers, your strong colonies should start to power on, then it’s just a matter of timing as to when you want to donate another frame of brood to the weaker colony.
After adding one or two good frames of brood to a weaker colony, it should have enough bees to be able to take advantage of spring flowers to build up without any further support.
Once the bees start bringing in pollen & honey, I would advise to stop feeding, on account that it could promote swarming.
Glad to see a reply
“Robbing” – When I feed the weak hive with original pollen, I seen a lot of bees hovering and flying in and out of the hive which is not a usual scene at the entrance.
You once told me that the bees from other 2 hives are getting in to “rob” the pollen. This happens only when I feed the weak hive and not the other 2.
I noticed one “hive beetle” last week in the weak hive. I dusted it out. I will check again
I don’t think I have “varroa” infestation in the weak hive. However I see the pollen littered at the base of the box. So I should clean it up
The other 2 hives are working hard to get “pollen”, “water” but I do not think they are “strong” enough to donate another frame each. I will need to wait
I have several questions on feeding, which I would post in a new topic.
I keep watching the entrance of the weak hive every day, to check if the bees are going out and getting the pollen. I will update you ,
Incidentally I had a sting on my head while watching the entrance of weak hive
The sting is from the bees of other 2 hives returning now…
The weak hive had bees coming out flying and going inside and coming out… but only a couple of them…
Later on I watched it from inside and saw few more flights … attaching an update for you.
Look at this… the entrance of the weak hive today morning… The ladies have started their work??
Pls let me know at this stage what should I feed them.
Is this on the recovery path?
Hi Usha, it certainly looks busier than it did 2 days ago. The possible reason being that 2 days ago the bees were not foragers.
If the foraging bees are bringing back food, & there is food stored around the brood, there is no need to feed.
I think the colony is on the recovery path, however it requires you to monitor the brood by making sure that there is more & more worker brood, coupled with enough nurse bees to bring it to emerging stage. Ideally during spring you want to see a snowball effect, which can be assisted with additional brood.
Thank you Jeff
I wil check tomorrow if there is pollen being stored around the brood or any other frame. I will get some pictures by weekend and post it back here
Just in case there are fewer pollen cells I will feed pollen again.
The remaining 2 hives are active collecting pollen, nectar and water. Temperatures are reaching 34C by this time.
Nights are still at 22-24C
