Am I a greedy beek?.......more 2 BC questions

[For want of a better word]

Following on from the 2 brood chambers and what to do thread... so please excuse repitition.

I was "gifted" a number of WBC hives early November last year one colony was very strong, and another weak... possibly recently queenless, the other colonies were strong with good stores and settled well after their 100 mile trip.

I set theone very strong colony on its stance, put a couple of leaves of the Financial Times on top with a couple of sharp razor cuts, and set the weak colony atop. (FT is a "pure" newspaper without and celeb gossip or naked ladies odorning its pages, so meets with my Grandmothers' Primitave Methodists ideals!))
no QE, and then a super of stores on top of that with crownboard and obligatory carpet tile. I replaced the lifts and the roof, tied the whole lot down and let them be.

On 2nd February (Groundhog Day) I treated all my hives to a drizzle oxalic acid and sugar mix including the double brood colony.

I had observed on my weekly "Drive bys" that the bees had removed the FT and brought out their dead, but on the sunnier days were all flying as much as the other strong colonies. The oxalic acid treatment was a quick off with the lift and drizzeled straight on to the super... I could see plenty of bees up to the top of the super frames, and as a precaution gave all the colonies a slab of fondant onto the opening in the crownboard.

I need to move these colonies next week as the farmer has got planning for another huge barn on the site and is about to start work in earnest.

Would have like to have left colonies for another month... but can not!

My intention is to leave the 2 bc and super on the hive untill end of march...
possibly take off the super and start on a weak feed of syrup.....

April / May (hopefully when it warms up) split the colony into 3, requeening 2, into 5 frame Nucs and leaving the existing Queen in the WBC, in one BC,

Will take the Nucs to friends 5 miles away and set them up on his garage roof!

Is that a good plan or am I being greedy?

Will I find the Queen... are there 2 Queens?

One thing is for sure I never seem to learn from my mistakes!

Do I need counselling desperately?

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[For want of a better word]

Thanks Finman... you answered my question in the other thread.... I will run with a double broodbox for this year!

 

[Black Comb]

I think it's a good plan but not sure about the garage roof as a site.

 

[Rosti]

ican..

with Peter

I find that I can be focussed on what the bees are doing and absent mindedly wander a bit. Fine on a field margin but on a roof? take care! R

 

[jameskilty]

There is most likely 1 queen. The plan is good - if you are careful you could make more nucs. If you are buying in new queens, they will grow fast starting with 2 frames with brood, faster with 3 don't go down to 1. However you split, one will have the flying bees so the others will have what's not going to fly back. If you are quick split them up and if the first one seems short of bees shake more bees in off the next frame and close up straight away. Continue until you are sure the last nuc and the remaining frames have enough bees to cover them. There should be bees in the supers to come down to the old queen. Greed is when you split too many ways and some or all are short of bees so brood dies as they cannot keep it warm. You said 3 - that would normally be fine.

 

[For want of a better word]

Thanks folks ... it is always pleasant to get reassurance!

The garage roof is quite large and flat!