Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Algonam on August 17, 2011, 07:49:27 pm

Title: frame of honey from one hive in to another?
Post by: Algonam on August 17, 2011, 07:49:27 pm

I have 2 hives, first year.
One is stronger than the other. I want to feed them honey for winter and know I need 100 lbs for each hive.
If I don't have enough honey stores in the weaker hive can I give that hive some frames full of honey from the strong hive?

Title: Re: frame of honey from one hive in to another?
Post by: asprince on August 17, 2011, 08:19:49 pm

Yes, I do it all the time. Why is one so much stronger than the other?  You may want to consider swapping places with the two to boost the weaker hive.

Good Luck,

Steve 

Title: Re: frame of honey from one hive in to another?
Post by: Algonam on August 17, 2011, 08:46:54 pm

I don't know why 1 is weaker than the other... When the hives started as nucs this Spring, the one that is weaker now was the stronger one.
They are side by side about 18 inches apart facing East. It is cooling now and I am slowly thinking about what to extract and how to go about downsizing to 2 boxes (full size) each. The 3rd box on the week hive only has 2 frames filled in with honey, so far.

Title: Re: frame of honey from one hive in to another?
Post by: Michael Bush on August 18, 2011, 01:56:23 pm

It's almost always best to feed the strong hive and steal the capped honey rather than feed the weak hive and get it robbed...

Title: Re: frame of honey from one hive in to another?
Post by: caticind on August 19, 2011, 10:58:44 am

Yes, you can give frames of honey from one hive to another.  It's my preferred feeding method, simple, quick, and doesn't trigger robbing.