would this help?

[BabyBee]

my neighbour and I both have one hive each. We both have blue queens (unrelated) and both did a hive inspection today.

He has 5 full frames of brood; 3 frames of stores and they are also upstairs in the super drawing out that comb. (No QC's being built so far).

I, on the other hand, have 1 and a half frames of brood; a couple of stores and don't even have a super on yet! (despite hundreds of acres of OSR nearby which has started flowering).

We were discussing how 2 hives can be so different and wondered if there was any reason why he couldnt give me one of his frames of brood (minus bees) to help mine along.

Is it too early in the season? (we live in Fife, scotland)
Will it help prevent a swarm from his in the short term?
Will it strengthen mine (surely it has to?)

thanks
laura

 

[drstitson]

no, yes. yes - he can set his back a bit to help yours.

how much actual space do you have for laying? have you bruised stores in frames near brood?

 

[BabyBee]

have you bruised stores in frames near brood?

ermmm, not sure what you mean by this? dont know what bruised stores are....sorry?

as to how much space do i have...lots - 10 frames in total and only about 4 in use!! (

 

[Vergilius]

If I only had five frames of brood I would not be giving any away!!!


Ben P

 

[Vergilius]

as to how much space do i have...lots - 10 frames in total and only about 4 in use!! (

You might want to use a dummy board to keep the heat in, and carefully monitor their expansion...

Ben P

 

[BabyBee]

i put a super on cos of the OSR nearby and also a polystyrene layer under the roof to keep heat in - was that foolish?

 

[drstitson]

remove super. keep insulation. add dummy board.

queens need space to lay. stores use up space. scrape caps off stores near brood to mobilise stores and free up laying space.

did you over feed over winter?

 

[Tom Bick]

I have no experience with Scotland but will expect it to be a good bit behind the South East of England and although your hive sounds not so great to me it may not be so bad.

Nosema may be worth considering also if not insulation in the top of the hive will help big time. A frame of emerging brood will help but will also hurt the other hive.

 

[BabyBee]

remove super. keep insulation. add dummy board.

queens need space to lay. stores use up space. scrape caps off stores near brood to mobilise stores and free up laying space.

did you over feed over winter?

poor girls they are going to be so fed up with me meddling!

ok, super off tomorrow despite hundreds of acres of OSR!

and yes, i gave them fondant in december and it was only finished last week!

 

[Heather]

Bruising- scraping the top off the stores to encourage them to disperse/eat/use it. I would think about a requeen on such a slow hive.

 

[drstitson]

heather - requeening sounds good once queens properly on stream - however in meantime they are a team effort and BB needs to keep the colony going until new queen available.

 

[BabyBee]

requeening, that sounds scary!!!

how and when would i go about that? and can i know as early as this that my queen is not good enough?

 

[BabyBee]

as a further thought, if the Q isn't very good, would the hive not build a QC as their own attempt to supercede her?

 

[REDWOOD]

I would not worry too much now because although you both have blue queens they may be different breeds as some breeds of bees have a quick build up in early spring and can withstand lower temps. You should also look for any signs of disease which will also hinder the colony growth,

 

[Poly Hive]

Lets have a wee think about this.

I would not have a super on 5 frames of brood for a start, I super at a min of 8, and a strong colony on the 8.

That said, could he give you a brood frame to assist... yes he could but it would be a very bad idea for these reasons. His unit is not strong enough to be giving away 20% of bees to be. Your unit is no where strong enough to support (keep warm) your extra brood frame.

And I have a great deal of experience in Scotland, Aberdeenshire in fact.

PH

 

[BabyBee]

Lets have a wee think about this.

I would not have a super on 5 frames of brood for a start, I super at a min of 8, and a strong colony on the 8.

That said, could he give you a brood frame to assist... yes he could but it would be a very bad idea for these reasons. His unit is not strong enough to be giving away 20% of bees to be. Your unit is no where strong enough to support (keep warm) your extra brood frame.

And I have a great deal of experience in Scotland, Aberdeenshire in fact.

PH

well that is hugely helpful then PH as we are also on the East Coast.

So you would do what?

 

[Baggyone]

Super off, solid crownboard and as long as there are flying bees with plenty of stores then just regular inspections is what i have done with a colony which sounds very similar to yours. 3 weeks later and its beginning to look a lot better.

If I was you I would be looking at kissing off honey (unless they go berserk) and think instead of getting another one or two colonies. Much less stress I can tell you.

Baggy

 

[BabyBee]

Super off, solid crownboard and as long as there are flying bees with plenty of stores then just regular inspections is what i have done with a colony which sounds very similar to yours. 3 weeks later and its beginning to look a lot better.

If I was you I would be looking at kissing off honey (unless they go berserk) and think instead of getting another one or two colonies. Much less stress I can tell you.

Baggy

what does 'kissing off honey' mean?

 

[Jordy]

what does 'kissing off honey' mean?

Blowing your share a kiss goodbye for this season. Any honey produced should be left in the hive as stores for your colony to over-winter on.

 

[BabyBee]

LOL!

so here's what I did today...

took honey super off (had a couple of frames of nectar)
took QE off


they had drunk all the syrup, so added another litre
left the insulation on
added a frame of sealed brood from my neighbours bursting at the seams hive


thoughts?