I seriously doubt I will find the queen. These bees are bat s@#$ crazy and there are so many bees in the 2 hives. I will give it a try but i just don't know if I the nerve to hang in there long enough to get anything productive done.
I guess if nothing else i bathe the two mean hives with soapy water and hope my 1 weak hive makes it.
That is
THE problem - lots of good ideas being expressed - but exactly HOW do you achieve access in order to deploy them ? However, there's no need to resort to using soapy water - ever - as there's another 'solution' (pun intentional) which can be used.
One of the persistent myths perpetuated in beekeeping is that when a hive is smoked, bees will load-up with honey and thus become less aggressive. So - try smoking (even heavily), then lift the lid off quickly. Do you see bees rushing off to their stores combs in order to gorge themselves with honey ? No chance - they keep carrying on just as before - either that, or they become irritated and start focusing upon the beekeeper instead. It's just one of those myths which keeps 'doing the rounds'.
However, there
IS a way of achieving this - it's called 'Drumming the Hive'. Historically, this expression has had two uses: the first refers to beating on hives (usually skeps) in order to move bees from one hive into another. In this case it was often called 'Driving the Bees'.
In it's second sense, 'Drumming the Hive' was a technique employed by early beekeepers, but which has fallen out of fashion - I can't remember reading about this in any modern beekeeping book.
The technique involves smoking through the entrance of an aggressive hive very heavily, then 'drumming' the box - meaning hitting or slapping it - whatever takes your fancy. Then smoke heavily again, then 'drum' again - keeping that sequence going for at least 5 minutes, even 10 if you can manage it. (which seems a very long time when doing this)
Inside the hive the bees will think that Armageddon has arrived: the End of the World - or at least the end of the world as far as this particular hive is concerned - and so
WILL load-up with honey, ready for an instant evacuation. Perhaps this is where the original myth of "smoke equals loading-up with honey" originated ?
Anyway - the technique works, and works well - and will grant you a brief time-window of 20 minutes or so, which gives enough time to separate boxes and thus begin the process of weakening the colony in order to find it's queen.
'Drumming the Hive' is probably best seen as being a last resort - when you can't even open a hive to begin dealing with a problem without being mobbed.
Once a multi-box hive is split and separated by (say) 10 feet - it should become obvious which box contains the queen, and so that box can then be further sub-divided the next day. Best not to hang around too close or for too long after drumming, as when the bees realise they've been tricked, they become particularly cranky.
I've only ever needed to do the above 2 or 3 times in my life, but on each occasion it worked extremely well - and was seen at the time as being 'a life-saver'.
LJ
