Yesterday I united 2 colonies - (both the remnants of splitting my original colony by AS, only to have the queen take off with a swarm anyway a week later). One has a laying new queen, the other has lots of foragers and plenty of stores but failed to requeen despite several cells (possibly went off as a cast swarm whilst I was on hols).
I used the paper method and followed instructions from this site and a couple of the standard texts. In the evening, I carefully lifted the queenless broodbox with its super and placed it on the paper-covered BB of the queenright colony. As I lifted it though, there were quite a few bees flying out of the underside and buzzing around, as well as a sizeable clump just hanging under the mesh floor.
As a result of the move, I now have a couple of hundred or so bees from the queenless colony milling around looking lost. I couldn't put them in the top of their original box as the rest were waking up and I risked disturbing more. The only entrance is into the queenright BB, so I assume at first these "spare"bees wouldrisk being attacked if they try to enter.
At the time, as night was drawing in I left the floor in place, put on an empty super and a roof for them to shelter in to give me time to sort out what to do next...if anything. Today they are just moping around their old entrance looking for their mates and wondering what to do with the nectar or pollen they have brought back.
Any suggestions? Should I just take away their old home completely or could I do a further paper combination later on?
I used the paper method and followed instructions from this site and a couple of the standard texts. In the evening, I carefully lifted the queenless broodbox with its super and placed it on the paper-covered BB of the queenright colony. As I lifted it though, there were quite a few bees flying out of the underside and buzzing around, as well as a sizeable clump just hanging under the mesh floor.
As a result of the move, I now have a couple of hundred or so bees from the queenless colony milling around looking lost. I couldn't put them in the top of their original box as the rest were waking up and I risked disturbing more. The only entrance is into the queenright BB, so I assume at first these "spare"bees wouldrisk being attacked if they try to enter.
At the time, as night was drawing in I left the floor in place, put on an empty super and a roof for them to shelter in to give me time to sort out what to do next...if anything. Today they are just moping around their old entrance looking for their mates and wondering what to do with the nectar or pollen they have brought back.
Any suggestions? Should I just take away their old home completely or could I do a further paper combination later on?
