Boosting A Colony

[Coldwater]

I have an apiary with a nice strong colony from an A/S in may on BS natioonal that has grown up well. In the same apiary i have a very weak colony in a Warre hive from a package in early may. Despite continuous feeding they are only taking down a pint if syrup per day and have created and drawn 6 small combs which are now half filled with sealed honey and half filled with worker brood. They don't seem to be drawing more comb very quickly?
Worrying The warre hive also has a lot of dead bees out front and crawling bees (about 5- 10 at any one time) dying in front of the hive.

The warre hive has its entrance reduced down and I can see no sign of other bees robbing it out? I am very worried about them and don't quite know what to do. Should I try and boos them with bees from another hive? I can't put frames of brood in because they are differ sized frames. Could I try shaking bees into an empty warre brood box on to of the existing brood box separated by news paper or would that cause chaos?

I have seen reference to crawling shaking drunken bees possibly being infected by trachael mites? Is this likely, or should I be concerned with other diseases...?

What should I do next?

 

[oliver90owner]

If they are not healthy wouldn't it be provident to find out why and/or what?

You should now know what to do next.

 

[Arfermo]

Apart from what O2O says above, and that is an essential basic, what you could do if you are brave enough is to get rid (squish) Q in Warre hive and introduce a productive Q from another good hive, leaving the bees in the donor hive to create another Q from viable new eggs less that 3 days old. The Q- hive might be a bit annoyed for few days but could be worth it. Ensure the Q that is moved is clipped first and put a QE under for a week.

 

[itma]

Varroa? (And thus viruses.) Have they been treated? (Or checked?)


// Do you have an OMF in a Warré?

 

[sandysman]

If they are not healthy wouldn't it be provident to find out why and/or what?

You should now know what to do next.

You need to check your varroa drop and for nosema,with your other hive being okay spray poisoning is unlikely . If you have a problem, identify what it is if you can or get an experienced beeks opinion, treat it and then you can start to build them up or introduce a new queen.