I’d take a look at the brood on a warmer day. Healthy hives should be building up now. They should be growing in size, not shrinking. If you hive is shrinking, I worry that you may have lost your queen. Two frames is very weak for a hive, but still viable. A 2# package really doesn’t cover much more than that. So, if your hive is full of healthy bees and a good queen, it should be able to build up. But, if it is still shrinking, I worry.
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Yup, exactly. Just cuz there’s a queen doesn’t mean she’s any good.
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Yeah, sometimes queens just fail. Spring buildup is a key time to notice it since they should be really kicking in. Sometimes you see a queen that just comes out of winter in a bit of a slump. Other times you see one that just starts strong but then begins failing over time (either drones or spotty pattern). I’ve also seen it where there is a big fat queen that looks like everything should be going great, but she’s simply not laying any eggs.
I even found one colony today that had been building up like gangbusters, but now the queen is obviously failing. At first glance it looked like they were going to swarm. There were a few swarm cells on the bottoms of frames. But a closer inspection showed just a sprinkling of brood from a failing queen. Guess she just ran out of steam.
Whatever the problem is, the easiest solution is to replace these queens. If the hive is strong enough, you can just pinch her, give them a frame of eggs and let them raise one. Or of course, you can purchase a queen and replace. If the hive isn’t strong enough to bother with, as Matt said, you can buy a nuc and shake those bees out to join it. I’ve nursed some very weak hives back to health, but the longer I keep bees, the more I realize it isn’t worth the hassle.
The one thing to keep in mind, however, is that sometimes it isn’t the queens fault. It is possible that there is brood disease or high mites that are causing a drain on the hive and slowing it’s growth. So, be sure to be on the lookout for these before you blame your queen.
From: Marcin
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2021 9:56 PM
To: madbees
Subject: Re: [madbees] Quick Check Added Pollen Patty & Suger Water
Interesting you said that Matt as I'm dealing with a colony that has a queen like that. In March, the brood was looking seasonal for the time and on par with other colonies. At beginning of April, brood amount was falling behind others. I gave it a frame of capped brood from another colony. Today, there's no eggs, just 7+ days old larvae and capped brood. I saw the queen, she seemed to be getting attention from the bees. I don't know what to make of it, but I'm guessing it's time to move on and stop wasting resources and time on her.
On Monday, April 26, 2021 at 9:46:48 PM UTC-5 Paul Zelenski wrote:
Yup, exactly. Just cuz there’s a queen doesn’t mean she’s any good.
From: Matt
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2021 9:45 PM
To: madbees
Subject: Re: [madbees] Quick Check Added Pollen Patty & Suger Water
Or a weak queen who won't lay much of anything. I've definitely had them before. They come out of winter and won't lay much of anything, even when condensed into a nuc box. Usually best to just cut your losses and start fresh. Even if you find a queen, if you don't see a good brood pattern you should consider getting a nuc for that hive (shake out the existing bees first if any are left).
On Sunday, April 25, 2021 at 5:08:26 PM UTC-5 jsteinh...@gmail.com wrote:
Well I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow.
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Glad to hear there is a good pattern. Hopefully it was just the cold weather being hard on them. The colder days are hardest on the smallest colonies since they have less mass to keep things warm. The strong colonies shrug it off, but the small ones really have to cluster up and sometimes even lose brood. If this warm weather doesn’t get ‘em moving, I’d be concerned.
From: Jeff Steinhauer
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2021 10:01 PM
To: madbees
Subject: Re: [madbees] Quick Check Added Pollen Patty & Suger Water
She was in there, and there was a decent pattern on a couple frames. Added a frame of drawn comb next to the brood, as they were packing in a lot of pollen. I'll think about dropping them down to a nuc after next week. The weather this week looks warm/hot but with rain. Okay amount of capped brood, larva & eggs.
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On Apr 26, 2021, at 9:45 PM, Matt <matthew...@gmail.com> wrote:
Or a weak queen who won't lay much of anything. I've definitely had them before. They come out of winter and won't lay much of anything, even when condensed into a nuc box. Usually best to just cut your losses and start fresh. Even if you find a queen, if you don't see a good brood pattern you should consider getting a nuc for that hive (shake out the existing bees first if any are left).
On Sunday, April 25, 2021 at 5:08:26 PM UTC-5 jsteinh...@gmail.com wrote:Well I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow.
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