Sharing Brood and Fixing Hives

Learning how to fix a weak hive is a critical skill in beekeeping. Every beekeeper will, at some point, have one—or many—weak hives that need help.

One of the most important distinctions to make before trying to fix a weak hive is deciding whether it's worth fixing at all. See our article "When to Give Up on a Hive" to understand when it's time to give up rather than continue trying to save it.

Assuming you've determined your hive is worth saving, you can do a handful of things to give it every opportunity to succeed.

The video above shows how to add brood, as well as how to gauge just how strong a hive really is.

To Strengthen a Weak Hive

1. Add a frame of capped brood. Take one frame of capped brood from a stronger hive and place it in the center of the bottom brood box of the weak hive.
2. Add bees. While this can occasionally create a little infighting, adding young bees to a weak hive is often very beneficial. Find a frame of uncapped brood in a strong hive, make sure the queen is not on that frame, take it to the weak hive, smoke the entrance, and shake the bees off the frame in front of the hive. Because the frame contains uncapped brood, most of the bees on it will be nurse bees, which typically integrate much more easily into a new colony.
3. Check for Varroa mites. Make sure your mite count is two mites per 100 bees or less. Test and treat if necessary.
4. Feed syrup. If your weak hive does not have at least two frames of honey in the brood box, feed a small amount of syrup—about one-third of a gallon each week.
5. Feed pollen supplements. Only give the hive as much as it can consume in one week, which is typically about one-quarter pound. If there is any left at the end of the week, remove it, freeze it, and place it back in the hive the following day. This will kill any small hive beetle eggs or larvae that may have been laid in the patty.
6. Feed probiotics. Add a probiotic, such as SuperDFM, and essential oils like Complete or Honey B Healthy to your syrup.
7. Evaluate after two to three weeks. If you've done all of the above and the hive still isn't growing, or the queen isn't laying aggressively, it's probably time to replace the queen.

As you can see, the best way to save a weak hive is to "throw the kitchen sink at it" and give it every possible advantage. Provide the resources it needs, reduce the stress it's under, and let it focus on growing.

In most cases, you'll see the hive begin to rebound after taking these steps. However, if the colony has remained weak for several months, there's a good chance it will ultimately need a new queen. If that's the case, be sure to check out our videos on requeening on our YouTube channel.