Poorly chicken

[marksvernon]

Does anyone have a beehaus where the queen controls all 20 frames? We have a thriving colony at 15 frames but I am concerned to expand it further.

 

We did actificially swarm the orginal colony but the lesser colony is fading. I am not convinced the phsysical barrier betweeen the two colonies in the one behaus is sufficiuent to prevent chemical signals croosing the barrier. Should we just remove the barrier and let the main colony run all 20 frames?

 

Advise via the forum or via pm appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Mark

Edited August 7, 2011 by Guest

[Old Speckled Hen]

I don't have a beehaus but there is an example of a large nest here

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=12989

 

This is a sort of top bar hive so I don't know whether anybody really knows what's going on inside but according to the originator of the post the brood nest is large.

 

If you do unite I'm sure you would have to go through a proper uniting process after "Ooops, word censored!"bling the weaker queen, rather than just removing the barrier, but why are they failing? I think you have to find out why first.

Check for disease.

[Olly]

First question, which colony is fading - was it the one with the old queen, or the new one? Are you sure you have a viable queen in the smaller colony? Can you see eggs and larvae?

 

It would be normal for laying to slow down at this time of year, but I agree with OSH, you need to find out if there's an underlying problem. I don't have a Beehaus, but I don't think there is any limit to the size of colony that a queen can control. If you do intend to reunite them, you will have to remove one queen anyway, so I would check out the lesser colony thoroughly first. It's possible that the queen has died, or that (if it was a new queen) she failed to mate successfully.