How to destroy two hives.....

[sean-a]

I tried to combine two hives.
One weak hive, no queen and no eggs. Brood frames all rammed with honey.
I found a single sealed queen cell, so I moved the frame to a nuc and added another of stores.
Went through the hive looking for the queen three times...but didnt find her.

I then moved the hive over to another stronger colony and put a snelgrove board with a mesh barrier on top of the hive and the weak brood box on top.

I was convinced that there was no queen so I left the two hives separated by the mesh for the smell of the bottom box to permeate the top box for two days.
This morning (day 3) I removed the mesh and left the hives.

When I got back from work there was carnage outside the hive....
Hundreds of dead bees all over the front of the hive and fighting still going on.

Looks like I must have missed a queen :-(((

I suspect that the bees may have killed both queens.
I have replaced the mesh and opened another entrance for the bees.

Bugger !!

I guess that I will need to check the hives for eggs in a few days
I feel so cross with myself!

 

[MartinL]

Did you not have any Newspaper????

 

[oliver90owner]

You have ignored the advice, given time and time again, to use a test frame before uniting if the here is any chance of a queen or laying workers.

Hopefully you will learn this for the future. Do follow simple beekeeping instructions; they usually work far better and have been proven over many decades.

I doubt both queens will have been killed.