Calkins, Rob wrote:
> I have four hives.  I checked them this weekend and found the following:
> *       One hive was strong and doing very well.  Lots of brood and bees
> bring in pollen.
> *       One hive was weaker and not as strong.  Some brood and some
> pollen coming in.
> *       One hive very week with only about five hundred bees but I did
> find the queen and she is alive
> *       One hive dead.
>
> As this is my second year, I am learning and learning.  I made some
> mistakes and am paying the price now.  I am wondering if I can take the
> queen from the very week hive and use her for a split with the very
> strong hive.
 
Hi Rob,
 
I usually try to save these, even a poor queen lays more eggs than no
queen and any queen will lay more if she has enough workers. If you add
too much brood to the week colony they will probably kill her and start
queen cells. If this hapens you'll probably get a poor nuc. You can
usually add one frame of bees with emerging brood without a problem. A
week later add another frame and a week later you will be able to add
more. Spray a little thin sugar syrup on the frame you are adding and
the frame in the weak colony. Place the additional frame to the opposite
side that the weak queen is on. Sometimes they will supersede her later
in the year, sometimes the queen will come though the next winter just
fine, usually they will make a decent crop. If you don't think the queen
is worth saving you can always re queen later in the year. Another
advantage is that you will not pull too much from your good colony at
one time so their production will not suffer. This technique is a life
saver when money is short and you have alot of dead outs.