combine gone wrong.......

[G3farms]

Hive #1.......caught a little after swarm complete with what looked like a virgin queen, put them in a five frame nuc and the queen went on mating flights and started laying. only about 1 1/2 frames of bees total.

Hive #2.......did a split from a split so these were kind of small also. Never did see them making queen cells, must have been one tucked away that I missed during the split. I thought they were queen less since their numbers were declining and not seeing any eggs or a queen.

Combined #1 and #2 last night, this evening I check on them and the newspaper has a large hole chewed in it and I go digging for the queen to see if she made it. Two big balls of bees that was tough to break apart but did get both queen out of them. One is the marked and well mated fatty from #1, the other looks like a virgin or at least been on a mating flight, slender and full of vinegar from #2. The reason I say #2 has been on a mating flight is when I broke up the fight she flew off, I was watching her and she came right back to the hive entrance.

Installed newspaper again and removed both queens.

Now the questions are..........

1. Do I combine and use one of the queens?
      If yes which queen................
            #1 took a pretty good whooping but looks OK is laying eggs too.
            #2 still young and lively, maybe not mated yet, not sure.

2. Do I split them back apart since I have two queens now?

Can not believe I missed a queen cell or even the queen in that little bunch of bees, oh well that is what keeps it interesting.

[iddee]

I would cage them both, introduce one to the combine as a purchased queen would be, and the other to a pulled 3 frame nuc the same way.

[G3farms]

That is a good idea, never thought about that!

If I were to do that then I should use the #2 queen in the combine hive since she knows where home is and might need to take mating flights still.

[iddee]

I sold a guy a nuc last week to combine with a queenless one he bought 2 months ago. "No laying workers". We caged her for 3 days when adding them to his.

[Perry]

2 queens? I like Iddee's idea.
As far as missing queens? I was inspecting some nucs for sale and 2 out of 6 we missed the queens. Ended up finding them on the walls.
I rarely find queens on a wall, and have never (yet) seen a queen on an inner cover (and I always look). 

[Slowmodem]

2 queens? I like Iddee's idea.
As far as missing queens? I was inspecting some nucs for sale and 2 out of 6 we missed the queens. Ended up finding them on the walls.
I rarely find queens on a wall, and have never (yet) seen a queen on an inner cover (and I always look). 

The first time I used the Mann Lake top feeders, the bees had built comb under the trays, and the queen was up there laying eggs.



Now I put an inner cover and an empty super between the bees and the feeder.  I guess they think it's outside the hive by the time they climb all the way up there.

[G3farms]

WOW Greg that sure is a mess to have to clean up.

Never have found one on the inner cover either, but always look. Had set a super catycorner on the tele lid one day and went through the frames several times but could not find her. Finally gave up and put everything back together, there she was in all of her glory strutting around on the tele lid. Wonders I did not crush her.

[apisbees]

Two queen the hive Dbl screen the feed hole in the inner cover and place the 2nd entrance up and to the back. let them build up till one is a full box of bees then queen excluder them and supper in between and on top.

[tbonekel]

I learned from this forum to always check the covers for the queen and have not seen her there yet. You have gotten some good ideas. Good luck!

[G3farms]

Apis that sounds good, but I am too lazy for that kind of manipulation and really don't have time.

Well queen #2 went back into the combine and they were glad to see her again.

Did a three frame split on a booming hive and will put queen #1 in it tomorrow.

I paid for the split, took about six stings to the left hand and arm (it is kind of late and pretty windy now so the time and weather played into that).

[LazyBkpr]

Ouch...   Going to do splits in the morning.. I think I am going to start out wearing the suit this time.  A dozen stings in about three weeks should be quite enough to keep my resistances built up.
   Let the games begin!