[G3farms]

did a cut out on 5-29, was a very small colony and did not get the queen for some reason.
Bought a queen on 6-4 and she was out and about laying eggs on 6-6.
Bees not drawing comb or even attaching the cut out comb to the frames very well.
6-10 Gave them a frame of capped brood thinking this will boost numbers and get them going.
6-25 many new bees doing their orientation flight, looked good, this must have been the brood from the capped frame.
6-29 went through them expecting to put them in a ten frame box but to my suprise they had two swarm queen cells, one capped and one open. Get to looking and there are two queens walking around on the same frame and even on top of each other. There is not enough workers in the hive (a five frame nuc) to even swarm, only enough bees to cover four of the five frames. The bought queen is laying a good solid pattern and there were plenty of eggs laid in the newly emptied cells (the hatch from 6-6 eggs). they are very poor on stores but I have been feeding them.

This is the craziest bunch of bees I have ever seen, act just plum lazy to me.

Any ideas??

G3

 

[Iddee]

>>>>Any ideas??<<<<

How about a bad idea? I would keep feeding and see what they do. Also, I would check their pollen stores and if needed, supplement.

Maybe someone will come along with a good idea. :?

 

[G3farms]

they have plenty of pollen, and the only capped honey is what is around the brood.

They just will not draw any comb at all. I had them in a 10 frame box to start with (when I did the cut out) and then when I saw they were not working very hard put them in the 5 frame nuc. Looking at the waste on the bottom board of the 10 frame there was all kinds of wax plates that they had just dropped.

G3

 

[riverrat]

IMO sounds like you may be short on young bees they are the ones that usually produce wax. I would feed and hope the queen keeps laying they will eventually draw comb when they need the room What kind of foundation are you using Some times it is hard to get them to draw plastic

 

[G3farms]

this is wax foundation. They should have plenty of new bees, just had two frames hatch out with in a week of each other.
I had given them a frame of almost solid brood from another hive and then when the new queen started laying another solid frame of brood.
They would have many more new workers if they would draw out some comb for the now two queens to lay on.

G3

 

[beehandler]

maybe the foundation has something in it the bees don't like. try a couple of frames with starter strip and see if they take to that . or if you have some drawn in another,stronger hive,you could swap a couple of frames out. just my .02

 

[Charles]

maybe the foundation has something in it the bees don't like.

I was wondering about this too, the fact that they are not attaching the cutout comb. Is it possible they sprayed these bees or had some chemical fertilizing happening in the area at the time?

 

[G3farms]

I don't think there is anything wrong with the foundation, I have used it in other hives and the take right to it.
The cut out was in a subdivision, in the wall of a porch. The lady that lived there did not spray them, she was waiting to find someone to come and get them, she thought is was neat for them to be in her wall but wanted them gone.

I did put a deep frame of foundation in that was partially drawn out, but have not checked in on them.

What about the two queens??

G3

 

[Iddee]

There are two queens in many more hives than is normally thought. They will likely make a choice in the fall and do away with one.

They don't have enough coming in to draw comb. Is your flow over, or just slow due to weather?

 

[G3farms]

flow is pretty much over here, there are several green houses behind me, my big garden, and the clover is going strong. I am feeding this little nuc but still no results.

G3

 

[rast]

I agree with Iddee. Lack of flow. Where I live you won't get comb drawn at this time of the year. Feeding them dosen't help either. They just sock it away and when they run out of drawn comb to store it in, they quit taking it.