lsb Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 So I have lost my second queen for the year and am considering uniting colonies (I have two in my beehaus) instead of going for a third queen. Any thoughts? I know I can either add a new queen or unite and people have different opinions, but I'm always interested in thoughts before making a final decision. The queenless colony has 11 frames and the queened colony (now laying well) has seven frames. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lsb Posted August 7, 2015 Author Share Posted August 7, 2015 OK, so I combined the hives, but now have another issue: It’s been about 2.5 weeks since I checked the bees after giving the bees time to get used to each other (nibbling through newspaper). When I combined the hives, I spread out the frames from the hive that still had a queen within the hive that lost the queen. Today, when I checked, there is no pupae/larvae/very little brood in the side of the hive where the queen left/died; these bees also seem very hungry having no honey stores and having eaten through one super frame entirely (that was full of honey). I also found a full queen cell on one of the frames (shape/size peanut). I checked the other end of the hive and the queen remains there and is laying (though not wildly-I think the bees are hungry). So my question is, do I move the queen down to the other end of the hive (think long like a top hive) and remove the queen cell, which looks quite advanced? Or do I just hope this works. It seemed very odd to me the ends of the hive appear to be working independently of each other, especially when the queen has full access (no dividers) to all frames. I may close off the second entrance and perhaps that will help. Thanks for the thoughts-someday this will work, or not! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 Why did you leave it so long to amalgamate the frames? I would have been in two days later. First remove the queen cell. Arrange the frames with brood and stores and queen together then move the empty brood frames away so that you leave your colony with a manageable space. Feed a little if needed. You could makes nuc with the queen cell but it seems you haven't enough bees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
