Too late to Merge?

[Boston Bees]

One or two fingers up to those that say uniting is to be completely off the possible agenda.

No-one did, so you may return your finger to its usual location ......

 

[gregior]

I had 2 queenless colonies to deal with this week. I didn't want to let them dwindle and let the wax moths in or ruin good comb with laying workers. I shook them out rather than uniting as I don't want to risk a good colony losing it's queen at this time of year.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

One or two fingers up to those that say uniting is to be completely off the possible agenda.

If done properly in the appropriate circumstances, there is nowt wrong with uniting - even where both colonies are known to be queenright. It is just amatter of ensuring all the conditions are correct before uniting in a sensible fashion.

Murray Mcgregor often unites two queenright colonies - leaving them to sort themselves out. I must admit I've done it once or twice and they turned out fine.

 

[Patrick1]

thanks, but what would be lowest winter temperature that a quick inspection could be done ?

There is no temperature when should not open your hive if you are reasonably sure something is going wrong, cluster separation from the stores would be one.

This is an extreme action but better than loosing the colonies. If they are flying you should be fine, just remember what quick means…. minutes, hobbyist may well need 10-15min, a pro 2min its the 2min we are talking about, ideally a sunny day.