Two hives, two stories.

[canterbury_keeper]

So my second full inspection today.

The two nucs have been in their hives for almost 4 weeks.

Hive 2 is going great guns. Broad, eggs, stores - drawing out new comb on a 3 of the empty frames. Queen not spotted, but loads of eggs so not worried.

Hive 1 - brood and queen spotted. Stores as well. I couldnt see any eggs, but the comb from the nuc is quite dark, so I'm hoping it was my inexperience.
They havent drawn out any new comb - I think (because the 4 frames are full) that they just have blocked themselves into the middle. So I moved an empty frame into the middle of the full brood.

I've also taken the feeders off both hives.

Any suggestions or comments? Shall I put supers on yet? Should I move more empty frames in amongst the broad in hive 1?

Thanks

Marc

 

[enrico]

It is not a good idea to split the brood quite so dramatically as that. They will draw it out as and when they need it, however they may be short of stores to produce wax so consider feeding a couple of pints of 1 pint of sugar to 1 pint of water just to get them going. Not sure why you removed the feeder? Were they using it or not?

E

 

[oliver90owner]

I couldnt see any eggs,

Why would you want to? If you can see larvae, she was laying less than ten days and as little as three.

If they have adequate stores they do not need feeding. The nurse bees should be busy servicing the maximum amount of brood, not busy drawing comb into which they would doubtless fill even more stores. You need bees to expand a colony, not excessive stores.

They should only have had a couple of frames to draw at a time, no more. The rest of the empty cavern should have been dummied or divided off to keep the colony as warm as possible. Less food needed to keep warm enough for drawing wax and easier to keep more brood warm.

Those points are simple basic common sense ways of how to help a small colony expand quickly.

As Enrico, splitting the brood with a small colonybis asking for trouble. Brood spread over a larger area, so need more bees to keep it warm; possibility of them thinking the queen needs replacing. Not a good move.

No supers needed until the brood frames are all drawn or almost completely drawn, and getting well filled with brood (another reason for not feeding excessively). You need an excess of foragers (as well as a steady nectar flow) in order to collect a surplus. Nor do you want any extra unused space until thevcolonybis much stronger. See the cyclic arguments? They all come back to more brood in the minimum space.

 

[canterbury_keeper]

Why would you want to?

Because I was led to believe it's good practice to look - as I said, I wasn't concerned - I simply wanted to give as a complete a picture as possible. You've often been cross at people for provide incomplete or vague posts.

Thanks for the other advice. Although opinion seems divided as to wether I should have removed the feeders. I removed them because there looks like there's lots of bees coming and going, loads of local forage.

Marc

 

[enrico]

My opinion is not divided. If you do have stores then you do not need to feed. But.... If there is none then you may need to. I did read your post but not well enough and for that I apologise. You do have stores so you don't need to feed......sorry!
E

 

[oliver90owner]

Led up the garden path by someone? Good practice to be able to find her, but not to go looking for her without good reason. That simply unnecessarily prolongs the inspection.

ALL the good books will say you do not need to actually see/find the queen at every inspection. You did not say you were unconcerned; you actually simply gave a possible reason for not being able to find her.

Get a better beekeeping book or do not believe all you are told. There are a lot out there that do not think too deeply (some not at all, it appears) about their beekeeping practices.

 

[canterbury_keeper]

nope rab, read it again. The hive i didnt see the queen had eggs, so i wasnt worried. The hive i saw the queen i didnt see eggs. No biggy, just words... but you do like accuracy.

 

[oliver90owner]

Sorry. Yes I needed to read it more closely. I was responding to your post re being led to believe it is good practice to look. I cottoned on to practice and not practise. Not good practice to go looking for the queen, even though it is good to practise looking while inspecting. Being able to find her when needed is far more important than looking for her as a regular practice. That 'c' and 's' make quite a difference to the meaning.

You also concentrated on queen and eggs. Larvae are important, too, but no mention, so your second report (hive 1) had a bit of an information gap but it seemed as though their must have been open brood as you inserted a frame of foundation.

I don't usually bother counting eggs, but the two to one ratio of capped brood to larvae can be a good indicator of an increasing or slowing brood development.

Eggs will be either located outside the open brood ring or in the centre of a patch which has emerged. Cuts down on the hunting for it. After a while it becomes easier and one only really notices the unusual, the normal being accepted unconsciously.

RAB

 

[canterbury_keeper]

So should I go back today and take the empty frame out of the brood nest and put it back on the end?

 

[oliver90owner]

Nope. But you should consider that possibility after going back and inspecting today. Who says it is now empty? If it is only just started to be drawn, I might replace it to one side of the dummied down/divided off brood nest. 'On the end' could mean of a row of 12 frames. If brooded into (which I doubt, but could be, as 'yesterday' and 'today' could easily mean 30 hours later), I would make a decision based on 'one side or both?'.

Also, while at it, check for any unwanted queen cells being drawn. You can see, perhaps, that simply reversing a bad move is not always the simple answer, as there may be other ramifications to consider.