Just when I thought it was safe to post everything was going good.

[Shawn]

I went out to check the hives again and found the swarm I got about a month ago is now queenless. I was going to rob peter to pay paul but found one of my strong hives I could not get the frames out. The other strong hive I think I messed up on because I let them winter in 1 deep and 1 medium. I placed a deep under the medium this spring and found the queen is still laying in the medium, anotehr reason to go with all mediums. The two queenless hives still have a lot of bees so I guess I will go queen hinting sice I cant get the deep frames from the other hives. Any other suggestions?

[asprince]

Why can't you get the frames out of the other hives? Start on the outside and use your hive tool to break it apart from the other frame. Use your hive tool to pry it up. Once you have one out the others can be pried away and pulled out.

Steve 

[Shawn]

Thanks Steve. I tried seperating them using the hive tool and I also have a frame puller. It seems they are stuck at the bottom, never had this problem. I guess what I need to do is seperate the two deep hive bodies and maybe that would make it easier. One positive note is the two strong hives already have two supers full of honey and I think I might have to add a third.

[wd]

yes you can !!!

Frames are meant to manage, not let go. Unless you want it that way, clean it up.

[Shawn]

Well I talked with BjornBee I found I had more of a problem than at first thought. It was great to talk with him and get his advise.

BjornBee, THANK YOU!

[annette]

 :? :?Whats up??

[Shawn]

Well the swarm I picked up about a onth ago is queenless, not sure I even got her. Im thinking she was probably aleady dead before I arrived because they were in the middle of the road. My one ive that I thought died, came back, and now is queenless (with a laying worker). Im so tired of these girls that think they can do the job. I sure wish there was a sent you could add to a box to stop the laying workers. Annyway I decided to combine the two hives and add a queen. It worked for me the last time but we will see what happens this time.

[annette]

Good Luck. Yeah I hate laying workers.

When you combine these 2 hives, you may still have the laying workers(plural as there are usually more than one). So how do you introduce the new queen without her getting killed??

[Shawn]

The last time I did a shake out about 30 feet from the hive, put the queen in, let her stay caged for three days and let her go. The first hive that had a laying worker I just put the queen in, three day wait, and let her go and everything went back to normal. If this does not work this time Im just going to add them to another hive and use the newspapers.

[annette]

Thanks for the info.

[Shawn]

I did the shake out and posted pictures in the requeening section. It sure was a mess.