Uniting with supers

[Jimmys Mum]

Can anybody advise me on the best way to unite two colonies when both hives have supers on?

With 2 x 14x12 brood boxes and 4 part filled supers it's going to be quite a stack. One part is queenless and now has 5 frames of sealed brood and lots of bees, the other has a brand new laying queen and 4 frames of eggs and unsealed brood. The hives are already next to each other.

Do I clear the supers of bees first before uniting?

Thanks.

 

[ratcatcher]

can you not get all the brood filled frames in one brood box?
I did this last year, then put an empty super above the other super, and simply sprayed the bees below with lots of sugar water, before tipping the rest in, into the empty super, everything went fine

 

[oliver90owner]

A total of 9 frames of brood on 14 x 12 and needing to unite?

Far better, shirley, to requeen? Not the best pair to unite, out of your colonies? Particularly while stillmin the swarming season?

I would be questioning why you have such a colony which is Q-.

 

[Jimmys Mum]

RAB, I can only have 2 hives at this out apiary and don't want to increase my numbers until I have another year or two under my belt.

One colony is queenless as I culled her after an AS. Three weeks after the AS (done Pagden style), they were still making swarm cells. I took a gamble, culled her two weeks ago making the colony hopelessly queen less to coincide with when I hoped that the new queen from the AS would have proved herself and I could unite, which I hoped would be last weekend but is actually now. I know it was a gamble as the new Q might have failed but I would have bought in a queen should that have happened.

I may take a frame of emerging brood to strengthen another colony I have which is doing less well.

They are close to rape and both parts of the AS have been piling it in, hence the supers.