What is the best course to take.

[Rock331]

I did a cut out of a water meter about one month ago. They seam to be doing fine. I  was feeding them 1-1 but this last change I did 2-1 sugar water. I have them in a deep and have about five brood frames filled out and they are working on drawing out the other wax foundations. the question I have is. I was called by a friend and asked if I would get a hive out of another water meter. she does not think they have been  there for to long. At least if the water meter was checked by the city not over a month but we all know who they dont check them every time. What I need to know is if it would just be better to put the bees with my other hive and kill the queen or build a nuc and see what they can do before winter time. I figured I will save the comb and put in a medium and put on top of the other hive along with the bees. If that will be the best thing this late in the season what is the best way to combine without causing the bees to fight.

[FRAMEshift]

There is a similar thread going right now,  Swarm in September.  It's the same question.  Can a small hive get ready for winter in time?  As in the other thread, the question turns on how many bees you have.  Since your current hive is less than 7 frames of brood, it probably can't donate to the new cutout.  And if that new cutout can't make it on it's own, then you should do a combine.   Kill the queen and add the new bees.  Then start feeding concentrated syrup.  I'd suggest intermittent feeding.  Feed for a day or two.  Then let the hive draw more comb.  Then feed some more.  Hopefully this will avoid too much backfilling of the broodnest.  

I'm assuming here that you don't have any other hives that could donate bees to the new cutout.

[Rock331]

Your correct in that I only have the one hive. His is my first year as a bee keeper. I will find the other thread and read it. Thank you. What would be the best way to combine the hives

[FRAMEshift]

To combine the hives, first make sure you have two queens, one in each hive.   If one queen is laying and the other is not, keep the one that is laying.  If you only have one queen, skip steps 1 and 2 below.   :-D

1. Kill one of the queens.
2. Wait 12 to 24 hours.
3.  Put the box containing one hive on top of the box containing the other hive.  Don't mix the frames in the same box for the first 2  days.


Some people separate the two hives with newspaper and let the bees remove it.  I don't think that's necessary, especially since both hives are fairly weak.

You can reduce fighting by mixing a dilute solution of vanilla extract in water.  4 or 5 drops of vanilla extract in a quart of water.  Spray the mix onto the bees in both boxes.  This will mask any queen pheromone scent and make it easier for the bees to mix.  After 2 days you can consider it to be one hive and intermix the frames as you wish.

[Michael Bush]

You can always combine in October...

[David McLeod]

Sounds like a cutout I brought in this evening. Small amount of bees decent amount of old comb. Enough straight comb to fill seven deep frames and the rest all crooked and burr. They were built into a wall void below a window, fortunately they built parallel with the wall. Maybe a couple pounds of bees, very little honey, lots of pollen and maybe a dozen fresh hatched/tore down queen cells, very small amount of capped, no open and eggs. Surprisingly no SHB observed, a first for me this year, wax moths present but no damage yet. Detective work observed entry at far right bottom corner of window but comb and bees were far left of a double 3'0" window. Upon opening found caulk and window screen stuffed in a gap at far left plus large number of dead bees in the bottom of the void. Deduction, failed spray job by some one else.
Whatever the case they are in a five frame and will be combined first of next week and the comb rotated out.

[BlevinsBees]

I would make up a 2 or 3 frame nuc with one of the queens and combine the rest. That way you'll have an extra queen if you should go queenless before winter.