Combining colonies in spring

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Joined
May 28, 2011
Messages
663
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Location
Long Compton, Warwickshire
Hive Type
WBC
Number of Hives
A half-share in 6...ish
Planning! Let's start by being optimistic. Assume all my colonies survive the winter. If that happens, I have more colonies than I want. I also have one colony that is very nervous and defensive - not really very pleasurable to manage.

Would it be reasonable to remove that queen and combine the workers with one of my other colonies to help with their spring build up? How soon would it be reasonable to do that?

Thanks for any advice
 
I plan to unite two pairs of colonies, maybe three, this Spring.
Totally my fault; lack of discipline over queens last year. I should have done it in the autumn.
I plan to make a decision on when after I've been into them the first time in the spring; can't do anything else really.

If they are foraging, the forecast is OK, they have at least a couple of frames of brood and you can find the queens, crack on.
 
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You might be better of squishing the aggressive queen and sharing the brood frames with the weaker colonies in the spring
 
Perhaps they are outnumbered and confused and surrender?
 
There are other methods(other than using newspaper) to combine colonies.

No reason why the end result (however you might get there) could not be all the bees from the aggressive colony into the other two and the c queen squished. Think a bit laterally - colonies can be balanced by moving over frames of (emerging) bees, or by swapping positions (if in thd same apiary).

Plenty of time to plan when you actually know what you have in the spring. Yet another option might be to transfer most bees and all brood, if the colony is not too aggressive, and use all three queens to boost numbers even more before getting rid of that queen. Simply keeping the colony small will, of course, delay drone brood laying in that colony. Squishing her when queen cell are available is an easy way to get back to three colonies with better queens. My advice is don't go counting chickens before they hve hatched. Instead, read up on how real beekeepers manage their colonies and make your choice at the time.

There is usually several ways of achieving the objective, but a best one for your pzrticular circumstance. While you are reading, take note of how to best to increase back to pre-winter numbers - that may yet be your initial target.....
 

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