What should i do with these three hives

[tom]

Howdy

  I have three hives that were booming before the fall and now they are down to two frames each. Now the rest of my hives are rolling good and my queens have started back laying and you can smell the aster honey being cured. Now two  of the three weak hive are working and the queens are going back to laying but one of them the queen has not started to lay and they are falling off and her brood pattern is spotty so i killed her and left them queenless i was thinking of putting them with the hive beside them which is only one frame now but the queen is laying and they are working like a full hive or should i put them all in a nuc the two that are close together. Now the third hive is a feral hive and she is putting out great but they are only covering two frames. I have a nuc that has some good brood pattern also should i combine the nuc with this hive and let the queens decide who will run the whole thing but i do not want to take a chance of losing both queens if they fight what advice can you all give me i am getting another nuc this week which is full of bees and honey what advice do you all have for me with this nuc i could unite themm with the nuc i am going to make and it should be enough i am lost need help.

Tom

[Jerrymac]

I have heard that some bees over winter with small groups. Everyone seems to be talking about queens shutting down now, guess it is that time of year. So why go into a panic and kill the queen?

[Michael Bush]

All my queens have pretty much shut down for the year.  I don't blame them, it's just the time of year.

At this point I'd do a combine.  In my climate even the ferals would need four frames or so of bees to get through the winter.  The Carnis will need about six or seven and the Italians will need eight to ten.  But your climate is much warmer than mine.  I would think you might get two frames of bees through a mild winter.

[tom]

Thank you Mr. Bush i did combine two of the weaker hives together without any problem i have another nuc that has about three frames full of pollen and brood. Aster is just getting going here and they are calling for rain this week for a couple of days i also have another nuc that i am going to get from a freind that is way too full of bees and honey so i am going to combine them with my feral hive and that should give them a big advantage. I walk out tonite and all i could hear was fanning from all of my big hives and the smell of aster honey being cured so now i have extra hive bodies for next spring with drawn comb but my other hives are doing very well and the queens have picked back up laying i guess they are trying to get that fall brood raised fast for winter.

Tom :)