My second hive has just a few queenless bees left. Can I transfer them into my first hive which has a strong colony?
Yes, is the simple answer. You can use a paper combine method. Basically place some paper above your current super with a few slits in it, not big enough for bees to get through. Place queenless super above and assemble hive. Over a few hours the bees will widen the slits and this delayed interaction makes the acceptance higher. Then over the next week or so all the paper will be expelled out the front of the hive. Let us know if your Google leaves you with any questions.
In you situation the key step is to make sure you have no queen cells in the portion you are combing.
Hi Andrea, welcome to the forum.
Because you’re coming into spring, as I am, my suggestion would be to take a frame of brood in all stages (bias) out of the strong hive to add to the weak hive. You can also shake 2 frames of nurse bees, minus the queen onto a flat surface that creates a pathway towards the entrance. Shake the bees onto the surface which could be 300-400mm away from the entrance. Allow the older bees to fly back to the original hive, leaving the nurse bees behind. After a few minutes the nurse bees will smell the hive odor coming out of the entrance. Then they’ll march towards it & into the hive, where they’ll be readily accepted. Nurse bees are always accepted by a strange colony. Nurse bees are needed for the royal jelly they produce when it comes to the colony producing emergency queens.
If the first attempt fails to produce emergency queens, repeat the process after about 10 days.
Because we are approaching spring, we need to be mindful that a strong colony will want to swarm sooner or later. Removing brood & nurse bees is one way to slow down that process.
That’s an interesting idea, Adam, I will consider that!
Oh okay, thanks Jeff, I like your idea too, especially as I could end up saving my second hive that way.
You’re welcome Andrea. I did exactly that myself today. The colony has a laying worker, so therefore it might need several attempts before the colony decides to make a new queen.
I was too late. This morning the bees from the healthy hive had entered the weak hive. I saw them drag a bee out on the landing board and quite some bees buzzing around.
Worrying that the green hive bees would become robbing bees, I placed the frames into another box with a ventilating roof. Not sure if that was the right action to take .
On the floor of the empty hive were quite a few dead bees,
now what to do?
Ik , I dealt with it best I could. Have put frames temporarily in container without any bees. Cleaned the hive. I hoping this robbing frenzy has not started a new behaviour in the district. They also busied themselves killing the few leftover bees 
. Not a good day, I learned the sad effects of waiting too long.
Thanks Adam and Jeff for reaching out with advice!!
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You’re welcome Andrea. The good news is that spring in on our doorstep. Therefore it’s a good time to start thinking about splitting the strong hive as a way to prevent it from swarming.
Today I recognized 4 out of 4 hives at one site that will need splitting in the not too distant future.
Sometimes the strategy like I described yesterday can be an excuse to start a new colony. Just a handful of bees, or none at all can be enough to get the ball rolling.
Thanks for the good news reminder, Jeff! I’ll keep your idea in mind, as I make preparations for the restart of my second hive. Happy beekeeping!
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