Reuniting when 1 hive has supers on

[perrybee]

I have just performed an A/S and believe a new Q in the old BB has not emerged, though I have put in some eggs from my other hive to check. If there is no Q I am thinking of reuniting both hives. My original hive is going great and has 4 full supers on. In this situation how do you unite the 2 hives? Is it BB with Q on botton, newspaper the BB with no Q, newspaper and then the 4 supers?

Thanks.

 

[Finman]

I have just performed an A/S and believe a new Q in the old BB has not emerged,
Thanks.

Lets assume that the hive has still swarming fever. If you now join it, fever spread to anothe hive too.

new queen has not emerged? When it emerges, it revieles, is the colony going to swarm.

- It should emerge that the hive becomes normal. You cannot join swarming hive. Get a laying queen from somewhere. Queen cells takes quite much time to start laying.

 

[enrico]

I have just performed an A/S and believe a new Q in the old BB has not emerged, though I have put in some eggs from my other hive to check. If there is no Q I am thinking of reuniting both hives. My original hive is going great and has 4 full supers on. In this situation how do you unite the 2 hives? Is it BB with Q on botton, newspaper the BB with no Q, newspaper and then the 4 supers?

Thanks.

You can reduce the supers if they are capped, remove and spin. I have done it the way you describe, I have also done it back to front with the q minus colony on the bottom and then paper, with the other hive on the top complete, however I would be more inclined to get a queen raised in the in the old bb by adding eggs, finman has a point and you do not want to cause a swarm when you would not want one!
E

 

[MandF]

I think they mean that for whatever reason, the hive is Q-, ie the virgin didnt emerge because it was damaged, or got lost on mating flight, etc.

So, in that situation, where the original hive has not raised a new queen, how do you reunite withh the original a/s if you have supers on, is the question.

Do you put the Q+ BB on the bottom, newspaper, Qx, Q- BB, then supers. And remove second BB when brood has emerged.

Or leave the Q- BB on the bottom, newspaper, Qx, Q+ BB, Qx, supers.

Or even Q-BB, super, newspaper, Qx, Q+ BB, Qx, supers.

Once united the boxes can be rearranged (if necessary) to put the Q+ BB on the bottom, and the Q- BB somewhere in the stack to allow the brood to emerge. I would say above a super (or 2) using a snelgrove or equivalent?

 

[Finman]

.
Ok, if the queen is gone. Join them and look what happens.

Still you would buy a new queen and make a nuc. So you have a spare queen.

 

[Tom Bick]

I to have combined in the way you describe BB newspaper BB newspaper Supers and it worked just fine.

I would also wait it sounds like your original hive is doing great and let the other half raise a queen and then you have the option to take a nuc with new queen or old queen and then combine or take two hives into the winter and combine in the spring if all goes well.



Just to add you probably have a virgin in the hive and the test frame will confirm one way or the other.

 

[MandF]

Tom, once they were united did you keep that same configuration or did you re-jig whilst the Q- brood emerged?

My thinking is that I would give the bottom (Q+) BB access to a super (or 2) directly above it so honey was stored in it, and not in the Q- brood frames.

 

[Tom Bick]

Hi MandF Yes I kept it double brood as I had decided to run my hives on double brood when needed and this combining was to achieve a double brood and get rid of a queen that I considered a bit to tetchy for the site.

I had the Q+ on her original site on the bottom and it just seemed easier and sensible to lift off the supers and place the Q- with no supers in the middle.

I did this during the day and both hives were reasonably close and obviously flying so I made up a nuc with the old removed queen and placed it in her old hives position to pick up the flying bees and any returnees the following day. That was my mistake as I miss calculated on the returning bees and a couple of days later they absconded obviously overcrowded leaving a reasonable amount of bees and a couple of frames of brood. But they raised a queen and overwintered well and are now ready for a BB but I will be requeening before they get to big and over confident.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I have just performed an A/S and believe a new Q in the old BB has not emerged, though I have put in some eggs from my other hive to check.

When is "just"? . From sealed queencell to virgin queen it's 8 days. If you have just done the A/S she won't be done yet.