Decisions, decisions

I went into the weak hive today and took out the Queen, putting her in a plastic container.  Today is the day that I chose to permanently remove her from this hive.  Unlike a lot of other times I've looked, today she was not difficult to spot and I was able to pluck her out and get her inside the container.  Seeing her alone and out of the hive was really strange, it's just not the natural way of things to see a Queen out of the hive.  And I got emotional and was having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that I'd have to kill her to merge her loyal subjects with the hive next to hers. 

I did a check on her hive, taking out some of the frames.  More foundation was drawn out than last time I looked but they're still not quite as prepared as they should be to survive the winter.  You would not believe how elated I was to see some honey stores AND both capped and uncapped larvae.  A baby bee was also emerging out of one of the cells.  Another thing I saw was comb was partially destroyed on one frame.  There was also what looked like sawdust underneath the hive and when I went to our Bee Meeting on Monday I heard that if the hive is getting robbed you will see this situation. 

So after I was in the weak hive I called my mentor and had a little discussion about how I was feeling better about the hive, and how it was going to be hard to kill the Queen and how maybe I'd wait for a bit to see what happens.  She agreed that making tough decisions is hard and that she and her husband have the back and forth feelings sometimes too, just like I was having.  What decision is going to benefit the hives, if I make this decision am I putting the hive in jeopardy or am I increasing it's chances of survival.  It's like playing chess with a thousand little pieces.  Having someone so willing to help me with my hives has been invaluable and I don't know what I'd do without them. 

My thought at the moment is that with all the good things happening, I am not going to merge the hives.  Margaret told me that I can always merge the hives later and that maybe for now I could put the Queen back in with her colony and watch to see if more progress is made.  She also suggested that I block the hole on the inner cover with some screen - waxmoths can get in a hive that way because apparently guard bees don't really get posted up there.  With no guards, waxmoths and robbers can do major damage to a weak hive.  I had a screendoor that was ruined so I cut a strip from there to staple to the top of both inner covers.  I also fashioned a temporary screen to the front of the weak hive to help reduce robbing.  The robbing bees generally fly straight into the hive, in essence bullying their way in, and the screen confuses them - maybe this is the edge I needed to give these guys.  The bees that live there will learn that there is an entrance at the top of the screen and should continue about their business.

I fed both hives 4 liters of 1:1 syrup today.  I'm encouraged and feel good about the additions to each hive.  Now, I need to read over my notes again from our meeting earlier this week and make sure that I've got everything I need to help these little guys make it through the winter.