Weak hive is terminal

[Jacobs]

I examined my weak hive today. No sign of the new queen or new eggs/brood. There are still some signs of a laying worker, though not as much as before. The real problem is that much of the comb has been destroyed by wax moth larvae. Nasty stuff.

I just began treatment of my strong hive with Terramycin today in case the weak hive had foul brood. I did not have a bad odor but some cells collapsed and open and no ropy remains in the brood I checked in the weak hive. I am going to finish the Terramycin treatments out of an abundance of caution.

My real question is the best way of ending the weak hive. I am thinking about moving the hive across my yard and putting a new medium super with a few frames (undrawn) at the place where the weak hive was, then do a shakeout and let the bees go to the medium super. Once they are there do a newspaper combination with the strong hive. Hopefully this would let me salvage some workers without the risk of introducing wax moth materials/larvae into the strong hive.

Is there an easier way that I am missing? Should I wait the 10 or so days until I have completed the Terramycin treatment on the strong hive?

Any suggestions are welcome

[Wally]

I just remove all frames from the boxes and scatter them around the yard. The bees will find a home with the other hives. The other hives will pick the frames clean of any honey that may be left. Then freeze the frames overnight and you have no more wax moths.

[Jacobs]

That sounds like the way to go. Thanks Wally.

[the kid]

one ???
you say your treating the strong hive in case the week one had foul brood ,,
now when you let the girls from the weak hive go to the strong one,,
does it not bring foul brood in to the strong hive ??? after the treatment ????
JUST A THOUGHT
the kid

[Kurt Bower]

I agree with the KID.
Since you went to so much trouble to treat your strong hive for AFB, why would you ever let the bees from the weak hive go back to the strong one.
I would have isolated the weak one in another yard and hae done a shake out onto totally new equipment and then treated with terrimycin if I had AFB.
Truthfully, if you had it in one, you would almost definately have it in both unless you cleaned your hive tool between uses and the hives were far apart in the same yard.
Too many "ifs."

Kurt

[Wally]

>>>>Truthfully, if you had it in one, you would almost definately have it in both unless you cleaned your hive tool between uses and the hives were far apart in the same yard. <<<<

Exactly why I would allow the bees to go to the other hive. The chance of them carrying afb to the other hive for an "initial" infestation is almost non-existent.

Also, if the Terramycin does it's job on the strong hive, it will be fine, even with the influx of new bees. If it doesn't, it will die with or without the new bees, "IF" it already has afb.

The help the new bees do far outweighs the danger of contaminating a "clean??" hive.

[Jacobs]

I followed Wally's advice beginning about 11:00 a.m. today and dumped the weak hive, removed the boxes and left the frames out in my yard. My 2 hives are about 3 feet apart and the bee dump is about 40 feet from the hives. It's the space I have to work with.

As of now (3:15 p.m.), there is a large clump of bees (equal to a 3 pound package) clumped at the location of the weak hive. There is some wrestling in front of the strong hive, but not like when large scale robbing is going on.

Questions: At what point will the bees from the weak hive walk/fly over to the strong hive and at what point will I know if the strong hive will take them in? If they are accepted, should I add a 4th medium super for now to give the hive additional room? The 3 mediums have been drawn out and have either capped "honey" uncapped "honey" or brood/pollen. I am still feeding it 1:1.

Things I learned/observed from this hive.
1. Wax moths are bad things. Re-queen early or boost with brood comb
if a hive is weak.
2. A few scattered brood, some workers, were emerging from the weak
hive foundation. Given the date that I saw mutiple eggs in cells,eggs
laid over pollen, poorly placed eggs (laying worker), the queen failed
at about the time workers started laying or, is it possible that workers
will start laying as a queen is failing? If so, why weren't they able to
make a queen and why didn't they do that?
3. Laying workers are bad things unless you like raising drones.
4. A determined bee can sting you through a glove.

I don't think the weak hive had AFB. There was no bad smell, and when I tested dead brood with a stick, most were either dry or went to a liquid when crushed. One or two had parts that "roped" no more than a quarter of an inch but did not rope again when I pushed the stick back into the goo.

Sorry for the long post, but it beats working.

[Wally]

>>>>At what point will the bees from the weak hive walk/fly over to the strong hive<<<<

About 1/3 daily.

>>>at what point will I know if the strong hive will take them in?<<<

When the fighting stops....

[Jacobs]

Thanks Wally. Now if the neighbors can tolerate lots of bees around in the air for the next few days while the frames are being emptied, all will be well. I did take 2 capped medium frames of "honey" and put them in the freezer for future use.