Hi all!

I'm an amateur (and new) beekeeper and I really enjoy the
conversations on this list. They're very helpful to me.

Recently the queen of one of my hives left the hive along with a big
number of bees and 'sat' on a nearby tree. When I saw it, I *supposed*
that a new queen was born and one of them left the hive with some of
the bees. So, I managed to put the queen and the bees surrounding her
in a new hive and left it under the tree. This happened before two
weeks.

Yesterday, I visited again my hives (I was on holidays the time in
between) and even though the new hive is doing well, I realised that
the old hive *does not* have a queen bee!!! Searched for her twice but
I couldn't find her! I suppose this is because, 1)she is dead (for
unknown reasons to me) 2) there wasn't a new queen in the first place!
Maybe the queen in the hive, decided to leave it without queen!!! Does
any know if any of these are possible (and why) ? Are there any other
possible explanations?!

Since the old hive doesn't have a queen bee is destined to die. What
can I do to save it? *Is* there anything I can do? I thought that
maybe if I find a queen cell in another hive I can put it in this. But
a friend of mine said that the bees are going to kill her as soon as
she gets out of the cell because she is not 'theirs'! Is this sensible
to assume? Another solution I thought, is to 'reunite' the two hives
back in to one. Is this the best I can do?!

Are there any other solutions?!

TIA
P.

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