Growing weak colonies
Guest post by Dean Haley
Weak Colony of native bees
I’d like to share a range of strategies for growing weak colonies. Some of these I’ve copied from others and some I’ve tried by myself. None of this is rocket science and I think these are all methods tried by a lot of people over many years.
I rescued a colony from a fallen tree in July 2014. It was a massive colony and I tried to transfer too many stores. Small hive beetle attacked and I almost lost the colony. In October 2015 I had a look inside to find only half of one box being used. The colony was still tiny after all this time. I transferred a section of pollen pots the size of my fist from another colony to build them up. With this head start the bees were then able to fill two boxes and I divided the colony in January 2016. The lesson here is that it doesn’t take much help sometimes to change the strength of a colony.
If your bees are looking slow and weak, They look like they don’t have much energy… This is probably the actual situation. Feed them energy as honey pots or an internal sugar feeder.
If your weak colony has some really tiny bees.. this is protein deficiency. Pollen has protein for growing young bees. Add some pollen pots.
There are very few bees… This is a particularly bad situation as there seems to be a minimum number of bees that a colony needs to survive. Most of these bees for most of their lives have house duties and it’s only at the end of a bees life they go out to collect food. I sometimes see very small colonies that behave frantically. They promote young bees to field duties in a desperate attempt to bring in resources and for whatever reason these young bees are not suited to field life. Bee numbers quickly crash even further and the colony may die. With a colony like this you can add pollen and a sugar feeder. You can also add brood and even adult bees (see below).
Boosting a weak hive with adult bees…
Lots of people do this and it works a treat, but it’s also kind of risky because it might cause a fighting swarm. You have to be brave to try this method and accept the consequences if it goes bad. It’s very simple just swap the positions of a weak hive and a strong hive. The returning workers from the strong hive now enter the weak hive and boost the workforce.
I’d like to invite readers to comment or reply to a post or two. Hearing people’s troubles and successes helps to build a pool of knowledge we can all share.
Dean
Thank you for the tips I am trying to get my weak hive stronger. The bee feeder worked well..
You are welcome for the tips but I’ve realized something.
I forgot to warn people that adding pollen or honey pots can attract pests such as phorid fly. Yuk!
SAFE ways to grow weak colonies are adding brood, or using a sugar water feeder.
Dean
My way is simply adding more brood comb from another strong hive. It helps if the hives are related, say a recent split, BUT still works with even unrelated hives. To me as stated in the article, its numbers. Although I find T. hockingsi bees can be started from very small bits of brood. Keep the ants out for the first month and they just breed up very quickly. You don’t even need a queen cell. They even go out and recruit queens (or somehow make there own).
Smart little buggers
I recently removed a hockingsi hive from an area of tree clearing at work, over the next 2-4weeks they quickly rebuilt the damage made in the move but have since slowed and seem very weak. When I look into the have there seems to be a lot of bees in there but hardly any coming and going on field duties(1 or 2 a minute in the morning sun).
I have another hive at work which I’ve kept in a natural log(Unable to open without taking a saw to it) and they’re the opposite, you couldn’t count them coming and going there’s so many.
Any ideas? Do you have details about an internal feed for them?
Hey there Jaime! Depending on your location the cold is setting in. An un disturbed hive will continue to work at any opportunity above 18 degrees Celsius. Especially if it is Tetragonula Carbonaria. On the other hand a hive that has recently repaired shop will choose to take it slow and conserve the stores they have sending only a few bees to do the work. This is normal for this time of year.
What you can do is supply them with some honey mixed with water 3:2 ratio. Put this in a very shallow lid fitted right next to their entrance hole and place a stick in it so any bees can escape if they fall in. Make this very shallow 3mm max and remove excess honey if it bubbles and put some new stuff in. Another option that Allan Beil, Dean and I use is to place some fresh honey comb into your box from the honey bee. The bees will take the honey out and pot it and Phorid fly don’t like it as much. Be sure to check that the person who you buy they honeycomb off does not have any brood disease in their hives as some honey bee diseases can transfer to native bees.
Dean may want to comment further on some internal feeders or sugar feed you can make for your natives.
Kind regards
Nick
Hi I recently was given roughly 30 rescued native bees from a building site I got a proper native bee box an put them inside with some fly mesh over the front of entry so they don’t run off till I sort out something for them . Iv been feeding them honey though the mesh I know that’s a really low number for a completely empty box. Just wanna know am I waisting my time or is there hope for them pls help
Hi Jaime,
I use a little plastic container with straight sides ( not tapering) like a film canister. I use the container like a cookie cutter on the base of a styrofoam coffee cup. I poke holes in my float with a tooth pick.
I cook up a sugar solution brew. The simplest version uses 2 parts sugar to one part boiling water. Stir until dissolved.
I do hope you have a top opening hive and don’t need to disturb the nest to open it. Doing too much destruction to the nest would surely attract pests.
Dean
Tommy,
Doesn’t sound good mate. Was there brood in that building site rescue?
Jaimie
>>>>>I recently removed a hockingsi hive from an area of tree clearing at work, over the next 2-4weeks they quickly rebuilt the damage made in the move but have since slowed and seem very weak. When I look into the have there seems to be a lot of bees in there but hardly any coming and going on field duties(1 or 2 a minute in the morning sun).<<<<
Mate this is very normal for hockingsi after a move. You also see a big drop after something simple as an inspection. They spend a lot of time in repair mode, its almost like they do an audit of the damage and take weeks. That said the main reason is temperature. As soon as minimums drop below about 20C for hockingsi, they just slow right down. Even if the day warms up, it takes time for the nest to respond.
Even here in the tropics, mins 19-20C, max 30C, my hockingsi activity has dropped right down to a crawl. I would not feed them personally if there is food reserves, its the way they are. BUT feeding doesn't hurt either. If it makes you feel good do it,
Graham L Sanders
Tommy
>>>>Hi I recently was given roughly 30 rescued native bees from a building site I got a proper native bee box an put them inside with some fly mesh over the front of entry so they don’t run off till I sort out something for them . Iv been feeding them honey though the mesh I know that’s a really low number for a completely empty box. Just wanna know am I waisting my time or is there hope for them pls help<<<<
simply put, if there is no queen, no brood and no pollen pots, then all your keeping is some bees as pets that will all eventually die. You need to take the mess out. If extremely lucky there maybe a worker that will act like a queen, BUT that's a really rare case. 30 bees is hardly any. my advice is cut you losses, take the mess out, and enjoy them til they die out.
Graham L Sanders
Thanks for the comments, I did think it may be due to the weather cooling. and also with a lot of their stores being lost in the move I want to offer them something. I’ll try them on the sugar solution again, they didn’t touch it when I first got them but they were much more active then. Looking in you wouldn’t think there was a problem, the queen can be seen being very active, but just watching the entrance you’d think they’d left. I also have some honey comb so maybe I’ll give them the option.
Cheers
Jaime
Jaime
One last comment on at least hockingsi. I have proprogated new hives with a very small amount of brood, 3 pollen pots and one honey pot and had no problems. Its true for weeks you hardly see any activity with this method, BUT suddenly when they need food then seem to emerge en-mass. I have never worried about activity out the front with them, as it seems to come in waves, from very low for a week or two, then they are everywhere the next, gone the week after again.
Graham L Sanders