Merging questions

[Woodland bees]

Can I just check a couple of things about merging hives?

1) Can I merge a queenless hive with a hive that has a very young queen - one that has only been laying for a few days? If not, how long should I wait?

2) If I want to dispatch a queen in the other hive do I kill her and merge right away? (This might be a daft question but I've only merged a hive that's been queenless for several weeks, so no eggs or larvae).

Thank you.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Personally I would wait till some brood was capped.
Kill queen. Prepare both hives. Merge in evening when bees stopped flying is what I do.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

your choice is, unite immediately after killing the old queen or after the colony is hopelessly queenless.
Personally I would wait until the new queen was laying well - at least with capped brood or better still when her brood starts emerging.

 

[Woodland bees]

Personally I would wait till some brood was capped.
Kill queen. Prepare both hives. Merge in evening when bees stopped flying is what I do.

Thanks, the queen that is being kept is a new queen raised by an existing colony. So, there's currently capped brood and larvae from the old Q but the new Q hasn't started laying yet.

I was going to wait for her to be laying well, so should I wait a bit longer for her brood to also be capped?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thanks, the queen that is being kept is a new queen raised by an existing colony. So, there's currently capped brood and larvae from the old Q but the new Q hasn't started laying yet.

I was going to wait for her to be laying well, so should I wait a bit longer for her brood to also be capped?

Yes.