Unite? Opinions please.....

[Tomo]

Hi, this is my second year beekeeping. I have two colonies and a nuc (the newly mated queen of which has just started to produce eggs today). My main large colony/honey producer became queenless as she got lost/whatever so ended up with laying workers. 20 days ago I put in two frames of bias from my other half size (building) colony. Inspected today to find a single capped QC on one of the bias frames in the queenless colony. Bearing in mind that we are in peak flow here, would it be best to either squish the QC and unite with the Nuc, or take the frame with the QC and put it into the Nuc and introduce the laying Q with an introduction cage? What would you do? I am concerned that the hive with the Qc will kill the Queen i.e. if I remove the QC and unite with the Nuc. By the time the new Q has emerged/mated/matured they would have missed any chance of a honey crop (last year they were producing up until mid Setember). Thanks.

 

[Hivemaker.]

What would you do?

Keep the nuc and other colony as they are... and let the laying worker colony sort themselves out with the virgin queen that will hopefully emerge soon.

 

[Tomo]

Thanks Hivemaker. With the timing as it is I was thinking that there may be an emerged virgin in the hive already although I couldn't see one. I would hate to loose another laying Queen. Ended up with two Queens in the smaller hive. Removed one for the Nuc and introduced a brought in Buckfast, only to find another Queen! I think she was the one that had got lost from the now Queenless hive. £40 down the toilet!

 

[Arfermo]

Thanks Hivemaker. With the timing as it is I was thinking that there may be an emerged virgin in the hive already although I couldn't see one. I would hate to loose another laying Queen. Ended up with two Queens in the smaller hive. Removed one for the Nuc and introduced a brought in Buckfast, only to find another Queen! I think she was the one that had got lost from the now Queenless hive. £40 down the toilet!

Just be more patient in future.

 

[Tomo]

Sorry Afermo, with regard to being more patient do you mean waiting for the main colony or when I introduced the bought in Queen? When I introduced the new Queen I removed what I thought was the only queen (and should have been) in the hive! Just bad luck I would have thought, bit of a fluke? My question stems from the fact that the flow is on here and waiting for a new queen to emerge/mate/lay will effect any possible crop. I only have the two hives.