Bee Yard Shuffle

Equalizing Hives Across the Bee Yard

Bee Yard Shuffle – Sounds like a dance, doesn’t it?

In reality, I guess it kind of is!

For those of you new to beekeeping, I have some wonderful news: you can take components from one colony and give them to another in need! Yes—it’s that easy!

It's common to have multiple colonies in the same bee yard where one or two are underperforming. I'm not referring to colonies suffering from untreated pests or diseases. Instead, I'm talking about colonies that had an issue—possibly pests or diseases—that left them short on nurse bees, foragers, or brood. Most often, the root cause is queen problems.

When a queen fails, the brood cycle is interrupted, and the workforce begins to decline. It's simple logic.

The first step is always to correct the original problem—whether that means replacing the queen or getting Varroa mites under control. Rule #1 in the book of successful beekeeping: a healthy, young queen is key. Once you've got that, the rest is housing, nutrition, and management.

Hive Correction

One of the hardest management skills to build confidence in is frame manipulation. After all, it was drilled into your head as a new beekeeper to put frames back exactly as you found them, right? Well... not this time!

Let's say you requeened a colony three weeks ago after it had been queenless for a couple of weeks. The new queen is laying, but the colony is still short on nurse bees and foragers. She can only perform as well as her workforce allows.

Now look at another colony in the same bee yard. It has a young queen laying up a storm, plenty of brood, and more bees than it currently needs.

Here's how to help the weaker hive.

Take from the strong colony:

• One frame of capped brood that's close to emerging, with the adhering bees.
• One frame of open brood (uncapped larvae), also with the adhering bees.

Move both frames into the weaker colony.

Important: Find the queen first, you don't want to move her.

Then swap the physical locations of the two colonies. The returning foragers from the stronger hive will fly back to their original location, which is now occupied by the weaker colony. Instantly, you've increased its foraging force.

The stronger colony benefits, too. Those two brood frames are replaced with drawn comb, giving its productive queen fresh space to continue laying.

Boom—both colonies win!

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Rob Peter to pay Paul"? That means taking a problem from one place and giving it to another. That's not what you're doing here.

• Don't give good resources to a colony that hasn't had its original problem corrected.
• Don't give bad resources to a strong colony.

Make sure mites are under control and nutritional needs are met before equalizing.

Equalizing by Location

Sometimes a colony doesn't need brood—it simply needs more foragers.

If it has a good queen and plenty of brood but is lagging behind, simply swap its location with a stronger colony. The returning foragers will strengthen the weaker hive almost immediately.

Pro Tip: Make the swap in the middle of a warm day while the foragers are flying.

If I had to point to one under-emphasized aspect of beekeeping, it would be the forager-to-house bee ratio.

A colony is a well-oiled machine. Foragers bring in resources. House bees feed the queen, clean cells, care for brood, and guard the entrance. When one part of that system falls behind, the whole colony suffers.

I can already hear someone asking, "But don't the bees fight when you move them from one colony to another?"

Short answer: Not really.

When you exchange frames with bees—or even swap colony locations—the bees are usually moved with the comb they've been living on. They simply keep working, and the receiving colony accepts the added workforce as a gift.

Time of Year

When can you do this?

Honestly—almost anytime.

The only real exception is during a nectar flow. Moving resources at that time can increase robbing behavior and may reduce honey production.

Get comfortable with equalizing colonies.

It's one of the simplest and most valuable management techniques you can learn. Once you know how to identify what's happening on each frame, you'll know when one colony has more than it needs and another could use a helping hand.

Simple as that!

Chari Elam