Ok. Newbie here. Remember that. Always wanted a hive for my backyard due to family members having them. Big hive at work again. Under the hood of a grain silo door. Prepared to get this hive as it had to go. Have to climb in this door often in the Fall, or I would have left it alone and got a hive in some other way. YES! OK: One of those half supers on the bottom with frames, and a full super on top empty. Open the door and the comb is HUGE! 3X2x2. Too big for the empty super. So we get maybe half the comb into the box and leave half there. I put another super on top with half the frames and finish. Then that night (now) I take it home. Lotsa bees in it. Covered it well. Questions: Obviously don't know if I have the queen or not. Or if I do, maybe she was squished. Many bees around the other remaining half of the hive, but many in my box. How will I know if I have the queen? If I don't, can I purchase a queen only to make this hive survive. Would do this Monday if possible. Pushing my luck there I think. Other option: If I don't have the queen, I'm going to try again with the remaining half. My supers are old and the frames are old. I scraped the old wax off them beforehand though. (all used stuff) Do you folks think it would be better to buy new supers and frames?? I leaning in this direction for round two btw. Can afford it. I'm deadset on keeping this hive alive!! Also, any tips on ant repelling, treating for V. mites etc would be helpful. Just brought this hive home an hour ago and it's late, so haven't even read the articles on this site. Was the first Google hit, and seems like the best. I'll do so tomorrow. Bear with me, it's late. Again, a newbie. Thank you!
Jeff