Lazy hives

[bramblebee]

We have just come through our first winter with our bees
Most of them are doing very well
We had one that seems to have lost a queen
But is full of bees
So with that one I have put a frame from a hive with newly laid eggs

The other one has a laying queen but shes not laying that many eggs
So the have is very slow in increasing in size
So i would like to replace her
Which is the best way

Every thing seems to be wright with the hive just not growing enough so there for not a lot of honey coming in not even one super
We have some hives on 3 to 4 supers and full of bees

Any help appreciated

 

[bramblebee]

We want to use bees from our own hives
And have not seen any queen cells yet
So can I just kill her and hope they replace her can add a frame of eggs from a good hive

 

[Poly Hive]

First thing is where in the UK are you.

You say you have other colonies now with several supers on them so presumably you have a fair bit of experience?

Seems you have two duff colonies. Given that you have others and there is no sign of swarming yet personally I would unite to the good ones and make splits later on.

PH

 

[bramblebee]

We are in Wisbech
Not best to try to re queen first then
you would unite the smaller hives or a larger hive with a small 1

 

[enrico]

I agree, combine bad with good (killing bad queen) and split later in year
E

 

[bramblebee]

What is the best way to unite hives

 

[Poly Hive]

Kill the duff queen.

Put queenless part on top of the good hive, put two layers of news paper between, and prick it a couple of times with the corner of your hive tool.

PH

 

[dilys]

Why not leave them be for the season and see what happens. If the weather turns nasty you might find the prolific ones eat most of what they have collected. Also if there is a late flow the slow bees might be at their maximum just at the right time, the others having been weakened by swarming. These slow colonies have a habit of catching and often beating the prolific ones. If you bump her off you will never know.

If they are slow because of disease that's a different matter but in that case the last thing you should think about doing is uniting. Your strong colonies will not benefit from more numbers but you could easily introduce a disease.

Dil

 

[bramblebee]

The reason I want to re queen is I don't know the age of the Queens
And they were not the best last year
So if they were young queens they should have got going buy now this season

So I don't want to wait and see
Would like to wait until I can re queen then get them right for the next season
Will think on it some more to see what I want to do