Guilfordbeekeepers.org

My daughter, Crystal, and I installed two new packages of Italian honey bees back on April 2nd. We started both hives with frames and foundation (not drawn out) and did everything exactly the same for both hives. One hive is doing great—so much so that, yesterday before our GCBA annual picnic, we added a second deep. However, the other new colony, after almost 40 days, has not done as well. We found the queen and she is laying eggs and there is capped brood. However, to date, they have only drawn out 3+ frames of comb and their population is dwindling. What do I need to do? Replace the queen? Add more bees? Start over? Something else? Any suggestions are appreciated!
Eddie Sechrest

It might be time for you to have one of the mentors take a look. You may just have 1 queen that is much better than the other, or 1 may have more Italian genetics and continue brood rearing even when nectar flows slow. Russians and Carniolans will slow brood rearing when nectar flows diminish.

If you have a dud queen, you may want to replace her. She won't get any better. It makes it more likely that she is a dud if you have been regularly feeding both packages and 1 is doing much better than the other even with ample nectar/sugar water supplies.

I don't think the population will be dwindling much longer. The marked queen may be a slow layer, but there is a nice pattern of capped worker brood on a couple of deep frames, and eggs and larvae on another frame and in some open cells.