Queenless colony - options?

[Ailsaboat]

One of the two swarms that I collected is not doing so well.
The second,smaller swarm has developed well and is now filling the poly nuc I put them in and is ready to be moved into a hive.
My first collection, which is already in a national hive, is now definitely queenless.
I saw the queen when I put them into the hive, but that was four weeks ago – there are now no eggs, no brood and no queen cells, and the bee numbers are definitely declining, only enough to cover three and a half frames.
I feel it's definitely long enough to assume that she has gone/killed/lost etc etc

So I'm wondering what my options are:
1, is it too late/too few bees left to give them a frame of eggs/brood to try and draw an emergency queen?
2, Unite with the strong collected swarm – if so, what's the best way, bearing in mind one is in a hive, one is in a nuc?
3, Just use them in what time they have left to draw comb – would they do this as there is no queen laying, then transfer the nuc into the hive once empty?
4, any other suggestions?

 

[Dishmop]

Take a frame with eggs from the Q+ hive and swap it for one in the other hive.
You'll have to wait for them to make a new queen tho. Or you can buy a new queen.

You can unite nucs with full size boxes but you need a board the size of the big box with a square hole in it for the nuc to sit on.

 

[masterBK]

Most people simply transfer the frames from the nucleus into a BC (using a dummy board to close the frames off) and then newspaper unite in the usual way (using excluder to not only hold the paper down but also you will know where the queen is when in a few days time you then reduce it down to one BC by removing surplus broodless frames).

 

[richardbees]

Mid July ....your best bet is to unite.
If they are next to each other and you have a spare broodbox, I endorse Masterbk above...if not, let us know and we'll think of something else.

 

[Ailsaboat]

Unite was my thoughts as well.
How long do you normally leave the paper in for?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Don't worry - they'll take it out for you

 

[Ailsaboat]

Ok, thanks everybody - that's tomorrows job sorted!!

 

[richardbees]

...just don't include the crossword!

 

[ratcatcher]

or just use sugar water

http://youtu.be/O4sS_Gc529E

 

[aidskywalker]

Unite was my thoughts as well.
How long do you normally leave the paper in for?

I united a nuc to a larger colony using newspaper method. Paper was eaten through within 24 hours, it was successful .

 

[Fahey]

If the nuc is next to the queenless hive, I would put an empty BB on the floor after moving the queenless BB. Transfer the frames from the nuc into the new BB and then shake all the bees out of the queenless hive, including the barren queen if she's still there. The rest of the bees will fly back to the original position. I just wouldn't risk uniting the two hives in case your good queen is killed. You can then complete the new BB with any frames of brood/stores from the queenless hive.