Bee Hive Management: Adding Space and Equalizing Your Beeyard

Equalizing Hives Across the Beeyard

In many apiaries, especially those with multiple colonies—sometimes even on the same platform—it’s common for one or two hives to be underperforming. I should clarify that this doesn't refer to colonies with untreated pests or diseases, but rather those that likely experienced some issue at some point, resulting in a shortage of nurse bees, foragers, or brood.

So what do you do when this happens?

Whether it’s early spring or the height of summer, weak hives that don’t show obvious immediate issues (e.g., a high mite load) often need requeening. The number-one rule of successful beekeeping is having a healthy, young queen in your colony. Once you’ve got that, the rest is just housing, nutrition, and management! So order a new queen! While you wait for her to arrive, boosting the population and nutrition of the hive can often set it on the path to rapid recovery. 

Note: When equalizing colonies, be sure to conduct a simple hive inspection to identify which colonies are strong and which are weak. Mark them accordingly so you can easily reference them as either donor hives or hives in need of donations. This will save time when you actually carry out the equalizing process.

Adding Nurse Bees and Brood

As mentioned earlier, queen failure is often the root cause of a shortage of nurse bees and brood. The first sign of queen failure is insufficient egg-laying or poor brood patterns. Order a new queen! Beyond this, the hive will likely benefit from a donation of open brood, which will also bring in much-needed nurse bees. These bees are vital for a thriving colony, second only to a healthy queen.

To help this hive, remove an open brood frame with nurse bees from the donor hive and place it in the center of the brood nest of the weaker hive, replacing a frame with little activity. This can be repeated with up to three frames from neighboring colonies until the weak hive has enough nurse bees to accept the new queen when she arrives.

Note: Be cautious not to transfer the queen from the donor hive.

Boosting Bee Population

If you identify a weak colony with a low population but it remains relatively healthy, you can help by adding a frame or two of capped brood from a strong donor colony. Insert the brood frame(s) into the brood nest of the weaker hive. To make space, remove a frame from the hive—usually one or two from between the brood nest and outer honey frames, as these are often empty in weaker hives. Be sure to freeze the removed frame before reintroducing it to another hive.

Within nine days (depending on when the brood was capped), you’ll see a population boost in the weaker hive that could set it on the right track.

Fun fact: A fully capped frame of brood will yield approximately 7,000 new bees (about 3,500 per fully capped side).

          Photo Credit: Nanette Davis

Forager Bee Shortage

Sometimes, a colony just needs more foragers, which is especially common after winter when older bees die off rapidly. To solve this, identify a strong forager colony (one with bees actively flying in and out on a warm day) and swap locations with the weaker colony. This forager boost will make a significant difference!

Note: Perform the hive swap during the middle of a warm day when the foragers are out. When they return, they’ll go to the colony that needs them, and they won’t even realize the change.

I can already hear someone asking, “Won’t the bees fight when you transfer them or trade places?” The short answer is not necessarily. When you exchange frames or swap hives, the bees are caught off guard. No pun intended.

To minimize fighting, simply shake the bees off the donor frame at the entrance of the new hive. The nurse bees will migrate in, while the foragers will fly back to their original colony. Problem solved!

When Can I Swap Locations?

You can equalize colonies and swap frames or hives pretty much any time, except during the height of the nectar flow. Equalizing during the nectar flow period is best avoided because it increases the risk of robbing and could slow down honey production.

When and How to Add More Space

You’ve likely heard of the 80% rule—any time a box is 80% full of bees, add another box. This is especially important during periods of population growth in early spring.

For robust hives emerging from winter, splitting the hive should be your first strategy. This is an ideal way to grow your apiary, create a natural brood break for Varroa control, and prevent swarming. However, not all beekeepers or hives want or need to split.

For example, a healthy double-deep hive can avoid splitting (if that's your preference) by equalizing your beeyard as we discussed. You can reduce the chances of swarming by using stronger hives to support weaker ones.

For hives that need additional space (e.g., a single-deep), paying close attention to the population is key. When eight out of ten or seven out of nine frames are full of bees, it’s time to add another box to accommodate population growth.

Adding a Brood Box

I’m a big fan of pyramiding when adding a new brood box to a growing hive. This involves removing a frame or two of brood and a resource frame or two from the center of the original box and placing them in the center of the new top box. This pushes the balance of the older frames to the center of the bottom box and installs the new frames that you pulled from the new top box to make room for the brood and resource frames.

While pyramiding isn’t required, in my experience, it helps speed up the process of equalizing the brood nest between the two boxes and prevents the bees from turning the new top box into a honey super—something we struggled with until we adopted this technique.

     Graphic Credit: Chari Elam

Conclusion

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Rob Peter to pay Paul”? In the context of beekeeping, this phrase refers to taking a problem from one colony and giving it to another. This is not what you want to do. Ensure that you’re not taking good resources from a struggling colony or giving bad resources to a healthy colony.

Always check your mite levels and nutritional needs to ensure that the equalizing process has the best chance of success.

Get comfortable with equalizing colonies and expanding hives—it’s a key part of successful colony management and can be done easily.

By: Chari Elam