Uniting with Supers after failed AS

[RogerJ]

After a failed AS I think my best option for this year is to re-unite the Q+ and Q- colonies (the Q- hive currently has a test frame in it to make sure it is really Q-). I'll try again next time!!

A search on this sight found a few references to this situation and one suggested way was as follows:

Roof
Crown board
Super
Super
Queen Excluder
Newspaper
BB - Queenless
Queen Excluder
Newpaper
BB + Queen
Floor
Stand

Another post suggested putting the brood box on top of the supers.

To my inexperienced eyes the top method seems logical but would appreciate any comments.

Thanks.

 

[enrico]

Decide how you want them for your own benefit, put the first box on the floor of the final resting place, squirt of air freshener into top of each box as you put them together in whatever order you want and bobs your uncle!
E

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

After a failed AS I think my best option for this year is to re-unite the Q+ and Q- colonies (the Q- hive currently has a test frame in it to make sure it is really Q-). I'll try again next time!!

A search on this sight found a few references to this situation and one suggested way was as follows:

Roof
Crown board
Super
Super
Queen Excluder
Newspaper
BB - Queenless
Queen Excluder
Newpaper
BB + Queen
Floor
Stand

Another post suggested putting the brood box on top of the supers.

To my inexperienced eyes the top method seems logical but would appreciate any comments.

Thanks.

Doesn't matter whether the colony that is staying in situ is Q+ or Q- but the easiest one would be to move the hive with no supers. If you can do that, close up the hive that's moving the evening before and move as close as possible to the host hive. Get up at the crack of sparrows, remove crown board from host hive - newspaper, QX then quickly put the other colony on top. End of story. Thus, from the bottom, Floor,Brood box,QX,Supers,newspaper QX donor colony,CB,roof Just done two this week.

 

[Erichalfbee]

That's what I would do except the getting up early. I put the newspaper on in the day and put QX and crown on top then roof. Loosen the brood box you are moving off the floor. Go back in the evening when they have stopped flying and put one on top of the other. I usually put a few pin pricks in the newspaper

 

[ainsie]

Just wondering if the queenless box is on the bottom and queenright box on top with supers in between will the bottom box make queen cells?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Just wondering if the queenless box is on the bottom and queenright box on top with supers in between will the bottom box make queen cells?

No because the bees will have mingled in a day and the beekeeper would have consolidated the frames a day or so later

 

[beeno]

Hi all,
I was very pleased to see that an often referenced beekeeping author prefers to have both brood boxes in a unite together for close contact i.e. no supers in between as that makes sense to me.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Just wondering if the queenless box is on the bottom and queenright box on top with supers in between will the bottom box make queen cells?

The queenless box needs to be hopelessly queenless before commencing thus unable to make QC's otherwise you could end up in the caca

Hi all,
I was very pleased to see that an often referenced beekeeping author prefers to have both brood boxes in a unite together for close contact i.e. no supers in between as that makes sense to me.

Why were you pleased?

The OP asked about both methods - Has been informed of actual experience of having one box on top of the supers which works (twice this week, and in the past.
That makes sense to me not referring to something that's been read.

 

[BeeJayBee]

A search on this sight found a few references to this situation and one suggested way was as follows:

Roof
Crown board
Super
Super
Queen Excluder
Newspaper
BB - Queenless
Queen Excluder
Newpaper
BB + Queen
Floor
Stand

Another post suggested putting the brood box on top of the supers.

To my inexperienced eyes the top method seems logical but would appreciate any comments.

If the hives are already closer than 3ft apart you will only need to move the smaller hive. If they're further apart it's a good idea to move them closer together before combining. You've probably already done this though, if it was needed.

There's no need for two lots of newspaper. The top colony won't be able to forage until the lower sheet of newspaper has been chewed, so they may need access to the stores in the supers. Don't make it too hard for them.

As JBM has already said, if you put a brood box above the supers and one of the two colonies isn't hopelessly queenless (still has suitable brood to raise an emergency queen) they could try making a new queen because they'll be too far away for the other queen's pheromones to reach them, especially through a layer of newspaper.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If the hives are already closer than 3ft apart you will only need to move the smaller hive. If they're further apart it's a good idea to move them closer together before combining. You've probably already done this though, if it was needed.

I never bother with this to be honest - just make sure that the moved colony is the top one and you do the unite when all the bees are at home (late evening/early morning) the act of chewing through the paper and mixing with a new colony is sufficent to trigger reorientation IMHO. Loads of orientation around the hives I did this week

 

[RogerJ]

Thanks for the help - but I may not have needed it as a quick look today showed some eggs and brood; so the queen took her time in getting going! Moral of the story (to me) is be patient!