Ruth has a problem with hiving the leftover bees from three hives which
burned.

How did the hives burn?

The best way to keep the bees hived is to add some frames of fresh brood
from other hives.  Don't let the frames get chilled in the transfer even
for a few minutes!  If brood isn't available (or even if it is) you can
place a queen excluder between the bottom board and first hive-body.  If
the queen stays, the hive stays.  However, if there's no queen in the
swarm this won't work.  Remove the excluder as soon as you see fresh
larvae.

It's wayyyyyy to late in the season for people to start hives in the
U.S. and doubt they'd survive beyond a few months.  Don't break your
back if you don't have enough frames of honey & pollen for them to
over-winter (two deeps here in Colorado).

Bees will group (swarm) together to keep warm without a queen though
you'll probably find a couple of smaller groups dispersed rather than
one big one.
As for quieting the bees from stinging people, they'll probably do this
on their own in a few days provided they have a queen.
If you think they're queenless and are utterly worried about someone
getting stung, you can kill the bees using common squirt bottles and
liquid-soap/water mixture.  This will knock down bees faster than
anything you could buy.  The large squirt guns found in toy shops should
do the trick for hard to get places.

Matthew Westall - Earthling Bees in Colorado
(feel free to e-mail me back if you have other questions)

Ruth Rotulo wrote:

> We had three hives burn yesterday.  We're amateurs and are not sure
> what to do

> don't know if we should kill the bees or try to save them.  Help!