wells the overturned hives had had time to settle in & here's what i found:
all hives have 2 full hive bodies with 9 frames per hive.
hive # 1- new from nuc spring 2011 . was my weakest hive all last year. it had 11 full frames of honey. some open honey or nectar, sparse brood, queen, very few bees. maybe 200-300. no drones
hive# 2-bought established hive from local august 2011. fair amt of honey. some brood, pollen, open honey or nectar. tons of bees, queen, no drones. i was changing some boxes for maintenance & left a box with 2 frames in it overnight. by the next day there were 3 good sized arcs of comb hanging fron the inner cover & the queen had moved up. i removed the new comb & added the remaing 6 drawn out frames. this hive now has 3 hive bodies. i think it is ok.
hive # 3- new from nuc spring 2001- 6 full frames of honey, some brood, pollen, open honey or nectar. queen, no drones. not as many bees as #2 but not so few as # 1.
hive # 4- established hive same deal as # 2. fair amt of full capped honey, no brood, some pollen, some open honey or nectar. no queen. several new supercedure cells. one with royal jelly. a ton of bees. this hive was hostile. queen may have been lost in the overturn. i'm leaving this one alone for now as i believe they are rearing new queens. i think this hive will be ok.
questions:
hive # 1 & # 3-if i relocate them can i put a box of frames on top of newspaper & shake some bees frome the # 2 or 3 hives ( making sure the queen is not included. since these hives were weak i would requeen when new queens arrive
hive # 2 & 4 -watch progress & deal with whatever develops.
since we have a flow going & all frames have drawn out comb would there be any point in feeding syrup.
Take a frame with queen cells (if you have more than one) and/or a frame of eggs and give it to the queenless hive. give the others time and reassess in a week or so.
Scott
rhe queenless hive is the hive that has supercedure cells. i do not have enough brood to spare to give to that hive right now. that's the hive i'm leaving alone for now. also this afternoon it looks like the stronger hive is now robbing the weakest hive. i think that hive is doomed. there's less than a cupful of bees left in it.
Just combine them with a sheet of newspaper.