Two combining questions

[Gardenpro]

I'm about to combine about 20 hives, most having two brood chambers plus super. All with newspaper.

Chances are good I will have trouble finding a queen or two for pinching. If I combine two queenright hives will I end up queenless or with the stongest queen, or?

And while using queen excluders (I know the debate but will be using them because there is some winter honey still in brood chambers been exposed to Apistan)

-Will 4 brood chambers below excluder/supers become a problem- or any ideas for that issue?

-Will the dirty winter honey (Apistan exposed) translocate into the supers or is stored honey ever moved within hive?

-Or is it standard to just remove that apistan honey and keep it ready for next winter feeding? The label didn't say anything other than remove strips before honey flow.
Thanks very much.

[peggjam]

I'm about to combine about 20 hives, most having two brood chambers plus super. All with newspaper.

Chances are good I will have trouble finding a queen or two for pinching. If I combine two queenright hives will I end up queenless or with the stongest queen, or?

And while using queen excluders (I know the debate but will be using them because there is some winter honey still in brood chambers been exposed to Apistan)

-Will 4 brood chambers below excluder/supers become a problem- or any ideas for that issue?

-Will the dirty winter honey (Apistan exposed) translocate into the supers or is stored honey ever moved within hive?

-Or is it standard to just remove that apistan honey and keep it ready for next winter feeding? The label didn't say anything other than remove strips before honey flow.
Thanks very much.

The queens will fight it out, so you should be ok as far as a queen goes, but you can proably expect the girls to supercede the winner before long, as she may get injured in the process.

Four brood chambers beneath an excluder will proably get filled with honey, at least the two top ones. Even an outstanding queen won't be able to lay in all the brood frames as the adults hatch out, empty cells will get filled with nector or pollen.

I doubt that there is much honey left from the winter stores. But your combs will be contamanted with Apistan residue.

How strong are these hives, and why are you combining them? Two strong hives will produce as much or more than one super strong hive, and be easier to work.

I almost think your best bet to combine these would be to sort through the brood boxes and elimate the empty frames, honey filled frames and excess pollen frames and get the two hives to fit into 1 brood box each, and then combine them.:)