The Queen is Dead, God Save the Queen

With great regret I have to announce that we committed regicide

over the weekend, only out of necessity to maintain the lives

of the colony.  The two original hives, from package bees,

were not progressing as well as our other two, one being much more

weak than the other.  While the bees on the frame above were

working to fill up their frame, the other hive had barely begun

and it was a mess.  The comb was bumpy and had tunnels in it,

not the norm, completely dysfunctional.

We visited a bee mentor who operates a beekeeper shop 

near the city and she recommended that we combine the

weaker hives in order to make one good hive, otherwise

our queen, being weak, endangers the entire hive and

they would not survive.  To do this is a little tricky.

In this example, the bees live in the two big boxes where they 

raise the new bees and make winter food storage.

On top of the two big boxes (deeps) we would stack

smaller boxes (shallows) where the excess honey is stored.

That is the part we get to harvest if the bees make enough this year.

We had to move the big box, where the weak hive is, on top

of these two big boxes.  We put a sheet of newspaper between

the bottom layers and the new deep on top.  You cut a couple

of slits in the paper and since the bees on top cannot get out,

they eat their way through the paper down to the deeps below

where the entrance/exit is.  It takes time to do this so they get 

used to the new bees and hopefully everyone gets along.

Here is the tricky part.

You can't have two Queens.  It would be a battle to the death

between them so we had to kill the weak queen.

We took out frames until we found her, and she is quite obvious,

really large.  Then we had to peel back the comb since she kept

hiding under the tunnels.  All the while, the bees see that we are 

after their queen, and they are not happy about it.

When we found her we had to pinch her to death.  

I apologized, " I am so sorry Your Majesty."

We used the bee hive tool and then ground her into the dirt so the

bees would not still have her smell.

Sadly, this is the queen that my husband saved when they first

absconded when setting up the hive.  It was necessary though.

We'll check back to see how they are doing and hopefully we 

will save this hive.  The other two, purchased as colonies (nucs)

are doing well and we had to add the shallows since they are

building up nicely.