combining hives??

[jasonfitz]

hey everyone. i am a first year bee keeping  from Central Iowa so this might be a dumb question but I'm going ask it anyway.  

i started out with two packages is spring.

the first hive is not doing so well. they have only drawn out one deep. i added a second deep but they never touched it. they superseded the queen. i should have requeened but i didn't. two weeks ago i did an inspection and they had a new queen. (the first queen was marked so i know it was a new queen). today i inspected it again, no queen no eggs nothing. so i believe this hive is now queenless.

the second hive is doing great. two drawn out deeps and they are working on a medium super. they swarmed once but it looks like they successfully raised a new queen.

i caught the swarm from the second hive and put them into a medium super because i didn't have any more deeps. when they had it drawn out i moved the deep from the first hive  to the swarm and they are starting to draw it out.

I'm thinking of combining the first hive with the swarm to hopefully make one one strong hive that will make it through winter.

is this what i should do and if so how do i com bind the two hives???

any help would be great.

[iddee]

Remove lid on one hive. Cover it with a sheet of newspaper. Make one slit in the paper, 4 to 6 inches long, lift the second hive off it's bottom board, and set it on the newspaper.

You are done......

[jasonfitz]

sounds easy enough. thanks for the help.