general combine ?'s and stratedgy

[windfall]

I have some questions about combines, not "how to" there is plenty of good info on that, but more planning and choosing.

I have 7 weak to very weak colonies that were generated from 2 hives as forced splits (about to swarm) and swarms caught:

All on deeps
10 frames with "original queen"
3 frame swarm with newly mated and laying queens
3 frame swarm with newly mated and laying queen
9 frames with new queen from same "batch" as swarms

6 frames with original queen
6-8 frames Probably has a new queen, will check tomorrow
12-5 frames and a queen due to start laying any day (I did an egg test here with no cells started)

I was planning on combining several of these together to make a couple strong hives and some nucs to overwinter. I had thought one or two of these would fail to make a new queen and some choices become obvious but it looks like they may all be queenright.

So how best to pick queens among new layers?
Am I best off running them all separately for another month or so and then making decisions, or is it better to get things done now so they can take advantage of the fall flows (just starting here) as a greater "critical mass"?
Might I be better off trying to make just one strong hive and more nucs (since I have all these little laying units)to come out of winter with the best chance of bees alive?

Any thoughts appreciated.

[Kathyp]

i would wait just a little.  there is no huge rush to combine hives.  you may find that you have a queen in each that is such a good producer that you will not need to do much combining.  a really good queen can lay in every single cell and catch a hive up very quickly.

in two to three weeks try to evaluate the laying patterns, and the amount they are laying, compared to the resources in the hive.  the second is a little harder, but you can do it according to the number of nurse bees to cover brood and the amount of brood in the hive.  if she's not laying the max they can cover, and they have adequate stores, she might be a candidate for pinching.  also try to calculate how much of the hive they are going to fill as they hatch out.  you don't want to have really small clusters in winter so if it looks like a couple of brood cycles won't get the numbers up, that hive is a combine candidate.

the nice thing about combining hives is that you can do it late.  you not only combine the hives but the food.    take your time and make sure that you are pinching the right queens if that's what it comes to.