As per Iddee's and Apis Bee's advice, I went over to the dog house on the ground today to place the dog house on a piece of plywood so that it could be moved to my other apiary on Wednesday. By waiting until Wednesday the bees would have time to reorient to their new placement, which was only about two feet from the old site.
When I picked up the dog house cover, I was surprised to find the comb was not attached to the cover, but instead, simply laid on the ground. There was three or four combs laying on top of each other. I saw brood and some honey. It is obviously a small hive The combs were about one square foot each. I had a large grain shovel, so I simply eased it under the combs and set them on the plywood and then covered them with the dog house cover. Now and interesting happening:
I have a laying worked hive that needs to have the bees shook out and the hive retired to the shop, but I was thinking........... Could I simple make a newspaper combine with this small hive on top of the laying worker hive. Wouldn't the brood in the new hive diminish the pheramone of the laying workers. And, if so, wouldn't the laying worker hive accept the new queen?
