How small can an overwintered colony get safely

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Andrewdale

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Hi checked on my hive no activity and so gave the hive a tap ( no buzz back) took lid off and bees are in there but not many ???? Started beekeeping last may so was really pleased thinking I got them through but now worried they are on the way out ?

How small is too small

Thanks
 
How small is too small

Thanks



There are 3 stages in mesuring "small"

1) You get them alive over winter and you have a spare queen for spring = value of queen.

2) A colony is alive but practically it is not abble to make new brood in cold Spring.

3) You have a small colony but it is not able to build up to productive colony.

4## You get small colonies during winter even if they have been normal in autumn.
Nosema na varroa reduces size of wintering cluster and then the size of colony is what it is.

.Small colonies are mere nuisance to hobbiests. When you have experience, you do what you do and no need to ask advices. But as advice to beginners, try to make big colonies and not try ás small as possible.


When you have an extra queen, it needs allways lots of bees to be usefull. You may take bees from stong hiove and then you have two weak hives which take their time to build up.


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A small swarm

Beeks often keep too small swarms. When I started beekeeping, I bought really much swarms. I noticed that 2 box swarm is a good start. The weight of bees is then 4 kg.

Swarms are seldom 4 kg and you may do them with joining 2-3 swarms.

Practical minimum hive is one box full of bees. It takes 4 weeks that the hive start to get new bees and is redy to expand. Up to that swarm bees die and after 3 weeks half of swarm bees have died. Brood makes heat too and help to keep hive alive.

If you have 5 frames swarm, it helps a lot if you give one frame of emerging bees from big hive.

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Hi checked on my hive no activity and so gave the hive a tap ( no buzz back) took lid off and bees are in there but not many ???? Started beekeeping last may so was really pleased thinking I got them through but now worried they are on the way out ?

How small is too small

Thanks

If you have an uninsulated crownboard the cluster may be lower down and difficult to see when opened in cold weather. The best thing you can do for them is increase overhead insulation by placing an empty super over the crownboard and filling with any kind of insulative material. If they are very small, relative to the size of the hive, it may be worth getting some kingspan type material, precutting to fit the broodbox snugly and using to reduce the size of the space they are in by removing outer frames (but not essential stores) and putting these in their place. http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=297902&postcount=18
 
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As PBee, but most of all (unless you have a transparent crown board) is to leave them undisturbed unless feeding them.
 
Hi checked on my hive no activity and so gave the hive a tap ( no buzz back) took lid off and bees are in there but not many ???? Started beekeeping last may so was really pleased thinking I got them through but now worried they are on the way out ?

How small is too small

Thanks


Unless the hive is *terribly* light (indicating no stores remaining), since you are in London where it is still cold, I'd leave things alone until Tuesday, when the forecast is for much more bee-friendly weather. That is the time to investigate. Report back what you find if you want suggestions as to how to proceed.
 
Up here where it's cold #and bees have hair on their chests..:

Insulated roof.
Insulation on top of crown board
Closed floor.

Add fondant on top of bars.. rolled thinly so it doe not stop crownboard closing.

Then leave them alone and check on fondant in 7 ish days on a warm day. Replenish if needed

# not as cold as Finland tho...but often very windy.
 
As already suggested, wait until a warmish day and take a very quick peek inside. You should see eggs or larva. Don't look for the queen, just check for any recent brood then put it all back together very quickly.

However, if I was a betting man I would gamble they are probably queenless or have a duff queen. Seeing just a frame or 2 of bees is not a good sign at this time of the year assuming they were a full sized colony last year.
 

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