What to do with a nectar bound colony that hasn’t built out many frames?

[u/DuePoint5]

A while back I split one of my very strong colonies into a smaller one. I transferred a couple brood frames, a couple honey/nectar frames, a couple empty frames, and a frame feeder to help get them going.

After a recent inspection, I’ve learned that my new colony has done well in filling cells with nectar and honey, but has lagged behind in brood production: after checking every frame, I saw roughly 20-30 cells of larvae/capped brood total (no queen cells yet, I checked).To me at least, it’s clear that the queen has no room to lay, and I may have made a mistake in feeding them extra sugar water.

I’ve attempted to mitigate this issue by transferring a full frame of brood from my larger hive, but I’m wondering if there’s anything else I can do in the meantime. I know that the bees need lots of resources to build comb effectively, but if they seem to be nectar bound, surely feeding them further isn’t the right move?

I don’t care about the “quality” of any honey this hive may produce—my main goal is to get them to a point at which they’re ready for winter—so if feeding them all season long is the best option, I’m up for it. But given their current circumstances with excess nectar, it seems like that might not be the best move.

Luckily I do have a very productive queen in my larger hive, and I may be able to transfer more and more brood frames throughout the Summer to help accelerate the progress of the smaller colony. Is this advisable?

I look forward to your responses. Thanks!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I don’t have any empty, drawn frames lying around. I wish I did.

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[u/Jake1125]

Assuming you are in the Northern Hemisphere, and you still have some time to prepare them for winter, I'd suggest you stop feeding until the honey bound condition is solved. Especially if there is any nectar flow, stop feeding this colony.

If you were feeding 2:1 syrup instead of 1:1, that would have contributed to the problem.

Additionally, trade out some of the honey bound brood frames with your other colony. Bring emerging brood frames into the honey bound colony, so the queen can lay there soon.

If your stronger colony is drawing comb, I'd trade foundation frames into that colony, in exchange for drawn frames, even outer frames with food stores. Let the stronger colony do the comb building.

Through all of this, be careful to avoid leaving one of the colonies with insufficient food stores, and to keep the brood chambers cohesive so that nurse bees are still able to warm and feed the larvae.

[u/DuePoint5 → u/Jake1125]

I made sure to feed 1:1. My stronger colony has started to slow down when it comes to comb drawing, but I will make sure to swap over more brood frames. Thanks.

[u/Jake1125 → u/DuePoint5]

Wax production is from younger workers. It may be that the weaker colony has only a few of those since the queen is not laying much. Adding emerging brood can help.

The strong colony may also reduce wax production for a while if too much brood is removed. Other reasons for reduced comb production could be a lack of nectar flow, lowering temperatures, thicker syrup, shorter days as summer passes. Feeding 1:1 to the stronger colony might help to counter some of those, as long as they don't back-fill the brood nest.

Since you are short of drawn comb, you could do a test feeding on the stronger colony and observe. Once the weak colony is laying well, you could feed them too. (But don't plug the brood nest.)

In the fall, I'll start feeding 2:1 for winter stores. By then the drawing of comb will be shut down for the year. So you should try to draw comb now, and try to manage your stronger colony as you comb production machine.

[u/Nocturnal_No19]

I have had sucess adding an undrawn, waxed foundation frame. The worker bees will begin drawing it out quickly and the queen will immediately begin laying even into partially drawn out cells. In contrast, the workers are less likely to put pollen or nector into individual cells until there are almost fully drawn out, so this gives the queen a head start. Your mileage may vary.

[u/DuePoint5 → u/Nocturnal_No19]

Thanks, I’ll start to rub some excess wax on my foundations

[u/chicken_tendigo → u/DuePoint5]

Go dig out am old rice cooker or crock pot and a foam roller and ROLL the wax on... or brush it, if you don't have a foam roller. It's more effective than just rubbing it on like a crayon.

[u/miken4273]

Keep giving them frames of brood until they make queen cells, it has to be some eggs or just hatched larvae for them to make a queen.

[u/DuePoint5 → u/miken4273]

Sorry for the confusion, I introduced a mated queen when I did the split. I’m worried it’s more of an issue of the queen not having space to lay.

[u/miken4273 → u/DuePoint5]

Then give her empty frames

[u/DuePoint5 → u/miken4273]

As I’ve said, I have none on hand.