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One hive hefts like a rock, the other's light — can I move a frame of stores across, or just feed the light one?

Yorkshire, first year, two hives side by side. Same apiary, same forage, same treatment, but hive one is so heavy I can barely tilt it and hive two comes up easily with one hand. Both look healthy, both have bees at the entrance on mild days, and hive two has a young queen from a supersedure in August, so I assume it's just smaller and started later. The obvious thought: hive one clearly has more than it needs. Can I take a full frame of sealed stores out of the heavy one and put it in the light one? It feels tidy, and it uses honey the bees made rather than sugar I buy. But I can hear the objections. Am I risking moving disease between colonies, even in the same apiary? Am I taking the margin away from the hive that's actually going to need it in March? And it's 11°C here at best — is opening two hives to do a swap worth the disturbance when a bucket of syrup or a slab of fondant doesn't need me to open anything much at all? What would you actually do with a week of decent weather forecast?
#winter-stores#hefting#feeding#beginners
▲ 9 votes 💬 4 replies ✅ Solved
4 replies
KentishBee · Oct 14, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer
Kent, third year. Yes, you can move a frame between colonies in the same apiary, and it's one of the nicest things about having two hives instead of one. Caveats: only between colonies you're confident are healthy, do it on the mildest afternoon you get, take a frame from the outside of the heavy hive's stores rather than the middle, and put it beside the cluster in the light hive, not against the wall.
PerthshireBees · Oct 14, 2026
Perthshire. Agree, with the caution that "heavy" and "has spare" aren't the same. Before you take anything, work out roughly what each hive weighs against what colonies here need — if the heavy one is only just at target, feed the light one instead and leave the heavy one alone. Sugar is cheap. Dead colonies aren't.
GeorgiaWes · Oct 14, 2026
Twenty-two years and I'd add: it's late for syrup at your temperatures. If the swap doesn't get the light hive where it needs to be, plan on fondant rather than another gallon of 2:1 they can't ripen. YorkshireNewbee, don't mix the two jobs up in one visit either — swap the frame, close up, and assess the weight again a week later.
YorkshireNewbee · Oct 15, 2026
Moved one frame across on Thursday at 13°C, all done in about four minutes. Light hive feels noticeably better and the heavy one still can't be tilted with one hand. Fondant ordered for the new year regardless.
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