Click HERE or on the logo for the full report. The lead beekeeper today was Tony Lack. He suggested that everyone check different colonies. Tony moved between members inspecting the colonies at the Apiary to assist and answer questions where required. Today we merged Hive 5, which has been queenless for a while, with the colony in Nuc 5, this had a new queen, and she was laying as eggs were seen. Tony selected to smoke the two colonies together.
It’s better to go into the winter with strong bee colonies; they have a far better chance of making it through the stressful cold months than weak ones. If you have a weak hive, you can combine it with a stronger colony. If you have two weak hives, you can combine them to create a robust colony.
Sometimes in beekeeping, things just don’t go well. Perhaps a poor nectar flow or a hive never took off due to a poor-laying queen. Or you might have a hive go queenless and join it with another hive because you can’t get a new queen.
Colony combining techniques: https://www.beeculture.com/combining-colonies/
- smoke the colony
- sugar syrup
- newspaper method
