On Mon, 6 May 1996, James wrote:
 
> and she seems to be healthy ( good wings...)  My question is:  should I just
> leave the weak hive alone, let it nurse itself back to normal strength?  or
> should I combine it with one of the other hives and create one really strong
> hive?  I've been reading on the list lately about 2-queen systems and maybe
 
        About 14% of our colonies come though winter in this condition.
If you just let them go many will barly get to wintering strength. Most
can be salvaged by boosting with brood from your strong colonies. I start
doing this in late April and only add a small amount of brood at this time.
Don't give them more brood than they can cover. On each visit more brood
can be added and by the time the honey flow starts most will be almost as
good as the strong col. and will produce a normal crop. The queens in
these colonies should be replaced as soon as convenient. Notice that the
total input to save the weak colony is about the same as starting a nuc.
The advantage is that when you have many weak and dead colonies to
restart, this method gets more equipment going sooner than if you trash
the weak ones and add them to your deadout list.