Swapping hives... again.

[Jim282]

Long story short, I have acquired an old home-made ply hive that I would like to transfer the brood from and into a new poly hive that I have. The reason I would like to swap is because the ply hive is rotting and I don't think it'll survive the winter.

The current frames in the ply hive are a little wider and longer than the space in my poly national hive and will not fit. Therefore, it seems as though I can't do a direct swap.

Only 3 of the 10 frames in the brood chamber have anything on them. The rest are just warped wax.

The good news is that the Queen and her gang seem happy and otherwise healthy.

What can I do? It's there any way to just start them fresh in the new hive at this time of year? I'm not sure what the best idea going forward is.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Long story short, I have acquired an old home-made ply hive that I would like to transfer the brood from and into a new poly hive that I have. The reason I would like to swap is because the ply hive is rotting and I don't think it'll survive the winter.

The current frames in the ply hive are a little wider and longer than the space in my poly national hive and will not fit. Therefore, it seems as though I can't do a direct swap.

Only 3 of the 10 frames in the brood chamber have anything on them. The rest are just warped wax.

The good news is that the Queen and her gang seem happy and otherwise healthy.

What can I do? It's there any way to just start them fresh in the new hive at this time of year? I'm not sure what the best idea going forward is.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Looks like the old hive isn't a National, if you are determined to re hive them now, your only option is to find out which format they are and get a hive to match.
Otherwise, wait until spring and start a bailey frame change

 

[Jim282]

I can try and patch some of the rotten wood to stop the drafts over winter. They are in a very sheltered spot, which stands in their favour.

Would you suggest I help them out by feeding sugar syrup, or should they be okay to continue filling the frames out naturally?

 

[Ian123]

If they are only on 3 frames atm then they will need some help anyway. Make up some national frames without wax and find the queen placing her in a cage. Then simply place national frame over old frame and cut wax to size hold in place with a few elastic bands. I would feed until they fill a nuc box first and worry about a hive later. Concentrate on saving brood when cutting out any lost stores you can replace with syrup

 

[Finman]

.
I bet that you can decide that problem alone.

 

[Erichalfbee]

.
I bet that you can decide that problem alone.

Perhaps but we can all share it and the outcome

 

[Jim282]

.
I bet that you can decide that problem alone.

Yes, you're probably correct. I've kind of found myself becoming a beekeeper sooner than I was expecting. So, there will be a few more seemingly obvious questions to come from me over the coming months.

I've joined my local bbka group, so I'm sure they'll have a lot of advice for me, but in-between those times (thankfully) there seems to be a lot of help out there in forums such as this one for us newbies (and indeed more experienced keepers).