weak hive - wax moths

[beekeeper28]

I discovered a weak hive Saturday.

There is about three frames of bees. Little or no stores. This hive was ok about two weeks ago. There was also some signs of some wax moths which was not present before. I have a strong hive with good winter stores should I combine the two hives and let the storng hive take care of the moths. Some of the moths were in the brood box. The three frames of bees did not seem to have any brood and it looked like they were already starting to cluster. We have had a few cool nights. The hive next to it is very strong (may have robbed the other) still producing brood and is still bringing in necture and pollen. Any advise? Side note I don't want to use any "chemicals".

[Michael Bush]

You may as well combine it with a medium strength hive. I'd pull the frames with the moths you can see and scrap them. You can try spraying the rest with Certan. It will kill the moth larvae but not the bees. You could just brush all the bees off the combs in front of a medium strength hive on a warm day and scrap them all if they seem pretty infested.

[beekeeper28]

"You can try spraying the rest with Certan."

MB what is certan? I guess i will combine it with my other hive. Should I try to find the queen or just put a queen excluder in between the two hive and let the bees go down and leave the queen to die?

[Michael Bush]

http://www.beeworks.com/uspage5.asp

Under Wax Moth Control. It is Bacillus thuringiensis spores which kill wax moth and mosquito larvae, but not bees or humans.

If you do a newspaper combine then I always leave the queen and let the bees chose one, unless I already have a preference. If I have a preference, then I kill the queen I don't want.

If you brush them off in front of the other hive, I'd kill the old queen first.