unit?

[beesknee]

Hi all,
I have a strong hive, almost fills a brood box (standard) with bees but has gone queenless, was on double brood into winter but I have now removed one (empty) put them fondant on. I also have a hive which has come through winter very weak (11/2--2 frames)of bees I have seen the queen and she looks ok, small patch of brood did not look for eggs etc due to weather not been too warm (looked in last weekend when weather was warmer than now) I could move this hive from the apiary it is in to the one with the stong but queenless hive.My question is will it be ok to unit the strong but queenless hive onto the weak hive with newspaper or will it be too strong ?I have never united such a stong hive to one so weak before but I am thinking I have nothing to loose, as spare queens will not be plenty full at this time of year,and the weak hive will not do any good for the rape and will take a long time to build up if ever, and the queenless hive, although strong will only get weaker if I wait longer until queens are readilly available and may end up with drone laying workers. Thanks for any advice

 

[masterBK]

Do you know for certain it is queenless? There have been a few instances this spring of queenright colonies but no brood present. I suggest in the short term you insert a frame of eggs from the weak colony inot the large colony and look again in a week to see if they have produced any emergency cells. If they have then they are queenless and you can paper unite (having got rid of the Q cells). If you unite with an unmated supercedure queen present then you may well lose the queen in the smaller colony.

 

[REDWOOD]

I would first find out why the colony has gone weak

 

[richardbees]

Are you 100% certain the strong hive is Q less?

If so yes, go ahead and unite - I agree with your rationale re possible laying workers so, as you say, you've nothing to lose....

richard

 

[beesknee]

Do you know for certain it is queenless? There have been a few instances this spring of queenright colonies but no brood present. I suggest in the short term you insert a frame of eggs from the weak colony inot the large colony and look again in a week to see if they have produced any emergency cells. If they have then they are queenless and you can paper unite (having got rid of the Q cells). If you unite with an unmated supercedure queen present then you may well lose the queen in the smaller colony.

thanks for reply but already done that sorry should have said

 

[beesknee]

I would first find out why the colony has gone weak

Hi hammered by wasps in autumn in fact into december tried to stop them but with no success had a real problem with wasps last year

 

[Midland Beek]

If you are sure they are properly queenless and this is not a case of the queen stopped laying (Nosema can sometimes do this in spring), then uniting to a queenright colony is worth a try, no matter how big or small. Uniting is still preferable to taking the queen from the weak colony and introducing it to the strong one.

Sometimes it is easier to unite in the same brood box by fitting newspaper vertically between the two colonies rather than having each colony in separate boxes. Take out however many frames you need to after bumping off bees, push remaining frames to one side, pin newspaper vertically, and close up hive for 15 mins. Open up again and place small queenright colony the other side of the newspaper in the gap you have left. Be sure to make holes in newspaper, as with all uniting.

 

[beesknee]

If you are sure they are properly queenless and this is not a case of the queen stopped laying (Nosema can sometimes do this in spring), then uniting to a queenright colony is worth a try, no matter how big or small. Uniting is still preferable to taking the queen from the weak colony and introducing it to the strong one.

Sometimes it is easier to unite in the same brood box by fitting newspaper vertically between the two colonies rather than having each colony in separate boxes. Take out however many frames you need to after bumping off bees, push remaining frames to one side, pin newspaper vertically, and close up hive for 15 mins. Open up again and place small queenright colony the other side of the newspaper in the gap you have left. Be sure to make holes in newspaper, as with all uniting.

Thanks for that MB