Quote Originally Posted by Thymallus View Post
No, although in general that strategy will serve you well.
A strong hive will, in general, bring in more honey than a smaller hive. I think the figures are like 2x bee numbers in one hive=3x the amount of honey compared to 2 separate hives with 1x bee numbers in each.
But the complication, I think, lies in previous selection for honey collection strains. There are high and low pollen collecting strains of bees and the honey collection is inversely proportional. i.e high pollen gather strains are poor honey gatherers and vice versa.
You can often find hives of nearly equivalent bee numbers, but only one is really doing the business honey wise. The other, I suspect, is just raising more bees.
I too have seen colonies of apparent similar size and one brings in significantly more honey that the other. Could it be that the productive hive has longer lasting bees?