Weak Queenless Hive

[GoldenHive]

Evening All,

I would very much appreciate some advice from the hive mind if possible please

I have 2 hives. 1 hive is strong, disease-free, and queen right. 1 hive is weak, queenless, and varroa ridden. I am going to treat them both with oxalic vape this week to sort the varroa issue.

- Will moving a frame or 2 of brood and eggs from the strong hive into the weak be beneficial to them?

- Will moving them into a 6 frame nuc over winter be beneficial to them?

- Are there any secrets to preventing the colony from going laying worker? I ask this because I plan to requeen in spring.

Thank you for reading!

 

[JamezF]

the hive mind

I see what you did there

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

a queenless hive is doomed at this time of year and won't last the winter, varroa or no
Even requeening now is pretty pointless

 

[pargyle]

Evening All,

I would very much appreciate some advice from the hive mind if possible please

I have 2 hives. 1 hive is strong, disease-free, and queen right. 1 hive is weak, queenless, and varroa ridden. I am going to treat them both with oxalic vape this week to sort the varroa issue.

- Will moving a frame or 2 of brood and eggs from the strong hive into the weak be beneficial to them?

- Will moving them into a 6 frame nuc over winter be beneficial to them?

- Are there any secrets to preventing the colony from going laying worker? I ask this because I plan to requeen in spring.

Thank you for reading!

No .. waste of time donating brood to a weak hive. If it is truly queenless combine it with your strong hive and make the most of the bees (and if there is any brood left). It's too late now for sensible requeening - either letting them make one or buying one in.

Once you have treated, if there is no brood in the weak hive you could wait for a dry day and just shake them out in front of your other hive but I would probably just tip them into your other hive with a squirt of air freshener - quicker and easier than a newspaper combine.

You can always split and add a queen in the Sprint or Demaree ...

 

[ericbeaumont]

preventing the colony from going laying worker

Regular addition of open brood is a common recipe to deter LWs but context is all: imagine the outcome should a virgin emerge at this time of year: yep, zero chance of mating.

Are there any secrets?

Not for your current issue - JBM & Pargyle have solved that - but I encourage you to be proactive when dealing with problems. For example, the colony must have been weak and queenless for quite a while, but why was that allowed to drift?

 

[Swarm]

Let them dwindle, I wouldn't unite them with your currently strong hive.

 

[madasafish]

You have one strong hive which should overwinter OK.
You have one hive which is doomed: too late to requeen and any brood given will be wasted as a new Q will have no drones to mate with.
Why risk a unite? Your weak hive has a varroa issue - which means it will compromise your strong one. Just let it die.
You do not want to compromise in any way the strong hive's ability to survive..