Yesterday I merged a weak queenright hive (a July Swarm) with a larger queenless colony. I waited till dusk, laid a piece of newspaper on top of the larger queenless hive, and put the smaller hive on top. I have some questions and need some advice.
1) I read this morning that the queen is supposed to be on the bottom. How important is that? Should I switch them?
2) The lower hive has only a lower entrance 3" x 3/8" and the upper hive has only a small upper entrance. Once they chew through the paper it shouldn't be a problem? How long does this take? Are they in danger?
3) A neighbor told me they saw my bees swarm again in mid-September. They couldn't tell me exactly what hive and I never went in to find out. I'm figuring that it was the hive where I can't find the queen now and they were not able to successfully raise and mate a succession queen. I know young queens can be hard to spot though. How bad is it if I missed her and there is a queen below and one above?
4) Is it strange that there is no brood or eggs whatsoever in the hives in early Novemeber? I'm also not seeing any significant amount of pollen. Should I feed them pollen supplement?
5) I treated with formic pro in late July. I am worried that I treated too early and that mite populations have built up in the hives. I noticed 1-2 bees with mites visible on their backs in the queenless hive yesterday and saw a few on the bottomboard as well. How soon can I do an oxalic acid treatment after merging the hives and is it worth removing all the honey supers?
Sorry for the barrage of questions. I usually send this kind of stuff to Bill, my mentor, but he is super busy.
Thanks for reading.
-Noah