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Thanks again folks, Richard I made the slits at the time but was worried I had made too many and the small number of bees in the nuc would be overrun before the scents mingled😊 Will know soon enough.

Ah well, having just read this I now think I have screwed up my unite tonight. Q- hive on bottom then newspaper on the top without a QE and then six frames from a Q+ nuc, dummy board cover and roof.... just to cap it all I probably put too many slits in the paper and as the Q+ colony is small in...

Well just went ahead with a newspaper unite after checking and removing QCs from Q- colony. Put frames from nuc into BB with dummy board and placed on newspaper over the supers. Hopefully it will work but will know at the weekend, first time uniting colonies.... Would be a shame to lose a nice...

Enrico / Richard..... Cheers for the ideas, Q- hive the brood was on super frames (2 supers worth) and is sitting on 14 x 12 bb with drawn and undrawn frames. Could possibly lift all of the floor, put on another bb, insert frames from nuc, back fill with more frames, put on newspaper replace...

Rab, it was an over wintered nuc that I put into full hive but then swarmed leaving not a lot of bees, has 3 and a half 14 x 12 frames of bias (not wall to wall) and I downsized it back into a 6 frame nuc to help it build up (a week ago), due to low bee count. First brood cycle from newly mated...

As per title, what is best way to combine a small Q+ nuc to a queenless colony? I have a nice new queen, good brood pattern etc in a small nuc and would like to combine it with a Q- colony that I have just done an AS on a week ago. My original plan was to unite the AS but thought a fresh young...

Did an AS on Monday night, moved 22 super frames of brood (not all of them have wall to wall brood)to a new box next to original, left queen and frame of brood in old hive.......checked today and queen still there with eggs etc. (colony is in super frames as over wintered swarm and just can't...

How quickly can you give a queen less hive a new mated queen after all brood has been capped? One of my hives will be queenless for one week this Saturday, I will have knocked down all QC's from the existing brood and expect most if not all the brood will have been capped by then. When will...

Checked this evening, queen is gone for sure, no new eggs and about 25 QC's across the frames..... Mixture of capped and open. Plenty of bees so don't think they swarmed but always the thought they may have but probably because there wasn't so many in the top BB that I put above the crown...

Cheers Rab, no capped QC's on this inspection, will check again on Wednesday evening and then at the weekend again. Was aiming for a big colony for a good crop...have Himalayan balsam and B/berry all round them which will be available soon. Maybe I should split, requeen both and move one in a...

Rab, haven't you heard the story that Christmas is about....another laying virgin ;)

Will know fairly soon if no new eggs......but the quantity of QC's and cups put up overnight and placed all areas of combs kind of flagged up that she may have gone. This is a very calm colony generally and even today whilst I was pulling it apart ( so to speak) they we're calm friendly bees...

Checked hives yesterday and one was in swarm mode, QC's on a few frames so knocked them down and planned to do an AS today as needed to sort stand and kit. Couldn't find queen and was on a double 14 x 12, 3 supers and no QE....not the best set up to try and find her and we have a heavy flow on...

Been out for past two weeks here in Sutton, London but only seen bumbles working them until Tuesday this week, even today not masses of bees on them.

Will know in a few weeks..... Was just laziness, was in my shed putting them into the homemade mating hives and as bees were trying to get out, had no protection on, and decided rather than go to car for a water spray to give them a little soak, I would dip the tip of my knife into an old...

Had several virgin queens and made up some mating hives for them.....first two run in and no probs, everything looked ok and bees accepted them (or appear to have). Went to run 3rd one in (the biggest and best of the three) and, as bees were trying to get out I thought upon a magnificent stupid...

You could use frame with most eggs, that way the colony that may be Q- will raise the brood and, if no QC's produced, you can put it back into original hive at the point the new bees will be emerging. Whilst waiting to obtain a replacement queen the bees can be put to work raising brood to boost...

Cheers Erichalfbee, that's what I was hoping for originally and left it to run it's course expecting to have had a previous QC Queen to emerge just after Easter, going in today there were numerous QC's that are showing that the queens had emerged and these were what was left. Now I don't know if...

Emerging queens.... Have a hive that has swarmed....won't go into the story other than to say my first chance to examine it since Easter and had known it would have swarmed in this time. Opened it today and 1st frame - capped QC and could see more on the next, decided I would knock 1st one...

Beauhawk.....Who /where are you talking about re Sunday?