advice

[craigavonb]

Went through my hives to day one queen laying well with sealed brood but the second hive had just handful of bees and a good looking queen. I don't want to lose the queen, advice please

 

[JohnyP]

Did you look for eggs and brood in the weak hive? Were there any stores?

 

[Cazza]

The question is, why is the colony so small at this time of year? Perhaps your "good looking queen" is a dud and not worth keeping? More information required.

If you do want to support the colony, reduce the box size and perhaps feed.
Cazza

 

[Moggs]

It's very difficult to provide assistance with such limited information. Descriptions or better, photographs will help. What is the history? Do bees look healthy? Varroa treatment last year? If it's literally a handful, there is something seriously out of order. Are you sure there's a queen there? If no queen, you could be seeing robbers from H1.


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[Midland Beek]

A colony comprising 'a handful of bees' will be dead by now. Didn't you spot something wrong like four weeks ago?

 

[Sammo]

Perhaps your "good looking queen" is a dud and not worth keeping? More information required.

Cazza

In the absence of any other information, my bet would be on this.

 

[Teemore]

A colony comprising 'a handful of bees' will be dead by now. Didn't you spot something wrong like four weeks ago?

In Northern Ireland our beekeeping season is probably at least three weeks behind that in parts of GB. Numerous local beekeepers have waited for the dandelions to bloom before undertaking their first inspections but I am not one of them. In his defence, Les isn't too far behind some other local beekeepers in carrying out his first proper inspections

Les - by any chance was this colony requeened late in the 2013 season?

Your options with this weak colony are perhaps limited by the number of other stocks of bees you have. Strong colonies (i.e. those on 7 or 8 full frames of brood and more) could donate a frame of emerging brood to the weak colony but I would be concerned that there may not be sufficient bees in your weak colony to cover the brood until it hatches. Do not deplete a moderate hive to try to save a doomed one!

Also, you need to consider why the colony is so weak. If the colony was requeened late in 2013, insufficient Winter bees may have been raised to see the colony through to Spring build-up. Once the colony started to forage, older bees would have died off rapidly, depleting the number of workers in the hive. Your queen may just be unable to lay sufficient eggs and this could be down to poor mating, damage, or Nosema.