moving a brood frame

[quentin]

Have a very weak hive, bees cover about 2-3 frames. SHB damaged. Considering moving a frame of brood from another very strong hive.

If I move a frame, making sure the queen is not on the one being moved, can I leave the nurse bees on it?
Afraid there are not enough bees in weak hive to tend and protect the guest brood.

[Jacobs]

I do that fairly often. I like to locate the queen in the weak hive and make sure there is at least one frame between her and the frame of brood and nurse bees I am inserting. So far, I have never had the queen harmed and I don't see any fighting between the hive bees and the nurse bees I am inserting.

If you are seeing SHB larvae in a frame and they have not totally made it nasty and stinky, consider removing that frame and freezing it for 3 days before reinserting it in a hive. You can salvage the very valuable drawn comb in most cases.

[quentin]

Thanks Mr J for the advice. We were able to clean out the SHB effectively. No larvae seen since cleaning. We check daily for SHB, find about 2 adults per day now. We will use the freeze method on any infested frames we find. Thought about rotating non brood frames in this hive with drawn comb we have stored in freezer to help eradicate the SHB.

Thanks again