Three Very Stuck Frames
Three Very Stuck Frames
Hi there, I am a new beek. Promise not to laugh. I received a nuc with only three frames in it which were not placed in tight and some very busy russian bees. They had filled the frames with honey and and they built a full comb on the inside of the cardboard nuc. When transferring the bees, I took the freeform comb and squeezed some amazing honey out for the family. The other three frames were full and stuck together and the bees were in between. Not knowing how to separate the mess, I decided to put them in the new hive to start. It has been 2 weeks and I was worried there was no queen as there was alot of nectar but no eggs. Then I saw eggs, but no larvae (maybe worker's laying?). Then with even more eggs, but no larvae, I thought she might be old and not fertilizing. I have finally found approx. 3 day old larvae on the one frame beside the three stuck ones (which is now one glorious tunneling mass of honey, brood and bees). I have seen brood cells on the outside frame of the mass (which I couldn't inspect closely as I didn't want to try and pick up the mass, or put my head in the hive!). I have yet to see the queen, and have not seen any workers or drones hatching, although the cells look like they are there. The person who supplied the nuc told me there were 3 queens when he caught the swarm and they all looked new, so I am hoping I have a new, feisty queen. They gave me the advice to go in and just pull the mass apart and replace with new frames, but I don't have the heart and don't want to destroy the hive, pollen and honey stores or the upcoming brood. This area seems to be the pulse of the hive and they are doing very well AND the queen is somewhere in there and I don't want to hurt her. I AM concerned, however, about not seeing any disease to brood that could be inside the nest or getting to all of the bees when shaking sugar on for mites, etc. Will the brood move up (I have a medium on the deep) eventually and out of the mass? What would you do? This is not in any of the books! Thanks!
I would leave it until the hive is stronger and can afford to lose the brood that will be destroyed when the cleaning is done. Yes, they will eventually move up, but all the variables make it impossible to say when.
It is my opinion that over medicating is killing many more hives than under medicating. It shouldn't hurt anything to leave the mass for a few weeks to allow the nuc to become a strong hive before removing the mass.
It is my opinion that over medicating is killing many more hives than under medicating. It shouldn't hurt anything to leave the mass for a few weeks to allow the nuc to become a strong hive before removing the mass.