Equalizing Colonies: One of the Easiest and Most Overlooked Beekeeping Skills

Boosting Weaker Colonies by Sharing Resources

There’s something incredibly satisfying about this part of beekeeping. It’s like solving a living puzzle—moving pieces around, balancing resources, and watching the whole yard improve because of it.

One of the most valuable skills you can develop is supporting underperforming colonies by equalizing resources from stronger ones. We’re not talking about hives with active pest or disease problems. We’re talking about colonies that fell behind—usually because of a past queen issue—and now need help catching up.

Step One: Fix the Root Problem

Before you share resources, make sure the weaker colony has a healthy, productive queen and is free from heavy mite loads. Then you’re ready to support it with what it needs most: nurse bees, brood, and foragers.

The Move: Transfer + Swap

Here’s how to equalize effectively:

• From a booming colony, take:
• 1 frame of capped brood (with adhering bees)
• 1 frame of open brood (also with adhering bees)
• Add those to the weaker colony.
• Then, swap the physical location of the two hives.
  This tricks the foragers from the strong hive into returning to the new location—now occupied by the weak colony. That immediate boost in workforce will accelerate recovery.

Tip: Be sure to locate the queen before moving brood. Don’t transfer her accidentally.

Bonus Tip: For hives needing additional resources like honey or pollen, simply remove outer frames from a strong donor colony and replace them with drawn, unused comb from the weaker hive.

Extra Benefit for the Strong Hive

When you move drawn frames from the weaker hive into the strong one, you give the strong queen space to lay—especially important heading into fall.

A Word About Balance

Colonies thrive when the ratio of foragers to nurse bees is balanced. Foragers gather, while nurse bees feed the queen and larvae, clean cells, and regulate the hive. When any link in that chain is missing, the whole system suffers. Equalizing helps restore that balance.

When to Equalize

You can equalize at just about any time—except during a strong nectar flow (to avoid robbing and disruption to honey production). Midday is best, when foragers are out flying.

“Won’t the Bees Fight?”

Not usually. Nurse bees are not defensive and adapt quickly. Shake them off in front of the new hive entrance, and they’ll walk right in. Foragers—more likely to be defensive—fly back to their original location.

Effort That Pays Off

It’s quick, effective, and one of the best tools you can use to prepare your hives for winter.
Don’t overlook it—it could be the difference between a struggling hive and a thriving one.