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 [log in to unmask]