I live in southwest Missouri.  Last November I acquired 3 colonies of bees
from Pennsylvania.  Each hive consists of two hive bodies and all three
colonies were made from last years' swarms.  Colony #1 was made from an
early swarm and colonies #2 and #3 came from swarms later in the year.  I
was told that each had plenty of stores. When we unloaded them from the
truck the weight differences were obvious.  Colony #1 was much heavier and
I was told it had a large bee population, and had produced three medium
supers of honey last season.  Colonies 2 and 3 were noticeably lighter.
 
I did not open the colonies (except to peer down through the inner cover
hole to check for stores) until late February when I installed Apistan
strips and Terramycin patties in each colony.  Here is what I noted at the
time:
 
        Colony #1 was very full of bees with large amounts in both hive bodies.  I
did not remove any frames but by observation and the weight of the top hive
body I judged it had plenty of stores.  I installed two Apistan strips in
the lower hive body and a patty on top of the frames.
 
        Colony #2 had only a small cluster of bees mostly on the center three
frames of the lower hive body.  I did not remove any frames.  There were
plenty of stores.  I installed two Apistan strips in the cluster and a
patty over the frames.
 
        Colony #3 had a small cluster in each hive body.  Again I did not remove
any frames and there were plenty of stores.  Not knowing which cluster
might contain brood, I installed an Apistan strip in the middle of each
cluster and a patty over the frames in the lower hive body.
 
March 22 was a warm day so I decided to open the colonies for inspection.
 This is what I found:
 
        I examined the weakest hive (#2) first.  The bees were still clustered in
the lower hive body on the center three frames.  The bees were flying and
bringing in pollen.  I looked at each frame but saw very little capped
brood, maybe 10% of one frame.  I saw no eggs or larvae.  I did find the
queen and I watched her for a short period and she appeared to wander
aimlessly.  Practically none of the patty had been removed.  I cleaned off
some of the burr comb, cleaned the bottom board,  moved a couple of frames
of honey in next to the cluster, and reassembled the colony.
 
        Next I examined colony #3.  It still had a small cluster in each hive
body, each cluster about the size of the single cluster in colony #2.  I
inspected each frame and found some green mold on one outside frame in the
lower hive body.  There was a small amount of capped brood on one frame in
the lower cluster.  I cleaned off some of the burr comb (there was a lot)
and also cleaned off the bottom board.  I then looked at the cluster in the
upper hive body.  There was more brood there but still on only one frame.
 I never did see the queen.  I didn't open colony #1 because the weather
turned cool. for the past couple weeks I have been feeding 1:1 syrup with
fumidil by inverting a jar over the innercover.
 
 I re-read all the reference material I have and tentatively decided on the
following course of action:
 
1. Order a new queen.  (This I have done and a new buckfast queen should be
here on April 24.)
2. Rearrange the two clusters of bees in colony #3 so that all bees are in
the lower hive body.
3. Unite colonies #2 and #3.
4. When the new queen arrives, place her above the united colony over a
double screen board with several frames of capped brood and nurse bees from
colony #1 ( the strong colony).
 
This past Saturday (March 28) was another warm day so I inspected colonies
#2 and #3 again.  Colony #2 looked the same as the previous week with a
small amount of larvae and capped brood on only 1 frame.  In colony #3
there was noticeably more larvae on the three frames that make up the upper
cluster.  I moved those frames to the lower hive body with the rest of the
bees and made sure that adjacent frames were full of honey.  I refilled the
syrup jars.
 
My goal is to end up with two strong colonies instead of 1 strong and two
weak, and also to (hopefully) reduce the likelihood of swarming in colony
#1.  But after this latest inspection I wonder if my plan is the correct
one.  Since there was noticeably more larvae in colony #3 maybe that queen
is okay.
 
Should I:
 
a. Continue with the plan I outlined above?
- or  -
b. Unite colonies #2 and #3, killing the queen in colony #2 (the weakest
colony) and add several frames of brood from colony #1.  When the new queen
arrives introduce her in colony #1 ? (since this colony came from an early
swarm last year, this queen could date from 1996, couldn't it ?)
- or -
c.  Some other approach that I haven't thought of?
 
TIA
Rod Rupert
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