Hi Mark

You wrote:

> I may have made a fatal( to the bees) mistake today. decided to remove (bottom
> deep) to save to feed to bees in winter

Generally, I suggest leaving the two deeps in place since that is the winter
store of honey for that hive. Sometimes, you may remove a few frames of honey
from a well provisioned hive when really needed elsewhere.

> Turn 90 degrees and second Med that was stuck to bottom drops, turns upside
> down in the dirt, and generally panics entire hive.

A procedure that works well for me is to place the outer cover upside down on the
ground. Remove top medium; place gently crosswise on cover. Remove second medium;
place crosswise on first. Continue removing one box at a time and placing gently
crosswise until you reach whatever level you want. Reverse the procedure to
reassemble the hive. This procedure minimizes the potential for crushing bees.

> Now, I suspect that the queen was in this Medium. I have lots of dead,
> injured and dirty bees in the dust. I am unhappy, the bees even more so.

So, it's miller time!

> I replace the meduim. I install Apistan strips, reassemble remainder of hive,
> and get the hell out of there.

Apistan should never be used with honey supers in place. Don't consume, or permit
anyone else, to consume any of that honey.

> What next? Will they requeen and survive the winter?

You might want to do a very gentle inspection in about 1 week to looking for a
queen, evidence of egg laying, queen cells and young worker larvae. You might
also note pollen gathering/storage. You should cull out any honey from the
supers, segregate any brood into one super and place it back on the hive to allow
the brood to emerge. I've heard that the bees will generally not put more brood
into the super if you put the super on the bottom of the hive. You should remove
the super 3 weeks later. Determine whether the hive needs honey frames returned
that you previously removed. If there is no positive evidence of a queen or brood
rearing you can always purchase a new queen in order to save the hive.

> Do I take up Golf?

I tried that once; golf is a lot harder than it looks.

Incidentally, I once dropped an entire hive off of a loader. What a mess! But,
that hive is doing fine now. The queen even survived.

Wade
--
Web Site:  http://www.honeyhillfarm.com
E-mail:      [log in to unmask]
Call Sign:   W8BEE