# Adding to a weak hive?



## kirkmcquest (Oct 21, 2010)

Hi,

I have two hives. One is strong and hardy...one is weak and barely making any progress, I've have a second story medium on it for a month and they haven't filled any of the frames. My other bees ( from a local source) have had their top medium for two weeks and are almost ready for a third. I think the weak hive may have lost it's queen, or never had one, or...who knows?

I'm thinking about putting a few frames, with some young larvae, from the strong hive into the new one.....any advice?

My fear is that I will take the queen along and the good hive will not have any young larvae to make another queen.


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## no1cowboy (May 2, 2004)

first did you look to see if the weak hive has any brood?
next you can shake the bees off the doner frame before you put it in the weak hive.


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## indypartridge (Oct 26, 2004)

kirkmcquest said:


> I think the weak hive may have lost it's queen, or never had one, or...who knows?


What have you been seeing during your inspections? It's important to always look for signs of a laying queen: eggs, larva, capped brood, all in a nice pattern. If you see eggs, you know your queen has been laying within the last 3 days. If you see open brood, you know she's been laying within the last week. It's important to inspect regularly so you can stay on top of whatever situation may develop.

I can understand being nervous about accidently transferring the queen along with a frame of brood from the strong hive to the weak. As _no1cowboy_ suggested, you can simply shake off the bees and give the weak hive a frame of eggs & open brood. If you want to give the weak hive an even better boost, you should transfer nurse bees along with the frame of brood. Do it this way so you don't transfer the queen:
1) Take a frame of eggs/larva from the strong hive. Shake off all the bees.
2) Put a queen excluder on top of the strong colony.
3) Add an empty box on top of the excluder. Put the single frame in the box.
4) Cover up the hive, leave for an hour or two.
5) Come back, the frame will be covered with nurse bees (and no queen).
6) Put the frame of eggs/larva & nurse bees in the weak hive.

I use this method for making nucs and splits when I don't want to spend time looking for a queen.


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## kirkmcquest (Oct 21, 2010)

indypartridge said:


> What have you been seeing during your inspections? It's important to always look for signs of a laying queen: eggs, larva, capped brood, all in a nice pattern. If you see eggs, you know your queen has been laying within the last 3 days. If you see open brood, you know she's been laying within the last week. It's important to inspect regularly so you can stay on top of whatever situation may develop.
> 
> I can understand being nervous about accidently transferring the queen along with a frame of brood from the strong hive to the weak. As _no1cowboy_ suggested, you can simply shake off the bees and give the weak hive a frame of eggs & open brood. If you want to give the weak hive an even better boost, you should transfer nurse bees along with the frame of brood. Do it this way so you don't transfer the queen:
> 1) Take a frame of eggs/larva from the strong hive. Shake off all the bees.
> ...


Awesome! I am going to try that. I am having a hard time I.D-ing any larvae or new brood in the weak hive. I have been a little remiss in doing inspections the last few weeks. They seemed to be doing O.K the last time I checked. They were building a lot of burr comb because they were overdue for a second super...I scraped the burr comb out, set it aside but like a fool i accidentally stepped on it killing a lot of bees ( maybe the queen too ).

Anyway, thanks...thats great advice.


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