I am in mid-MD. An older lady received her two MannLake Saskatraz packages today. Almost a week overdue. She is not well, so today she asked me to come and rescue them from her front porch which I was happy to do. Cold and rainy today. I am sure she did not want to work in that kind of weather. I really do not want any more bees, but have always wanted to try Saskatraz. Most of the bees are still alive, but unsure of how the queens are. Can I shake both packages into a single 10-frame deep? Maybe 18K total bees? I am using a slatted rack for added room. Deep contains HFFCCCCFFH. If both queens are OK, I will give the spare queen to another beek. Will use top feeder to give 1:1 and add patty. Thoughts?
2 packages in one deep?
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Yes you can. Be ready to add another box soon though. Use honey supers if you have too if brood boxes aren't available. Do what you gotta do.
Thanks, Clayton. I thought so. Just had never done it before. I was going to mist the bees with sugar water with a HBH type lemony smelling additive before dumping so they would all have a similar smell. Half of the bees will have been with the queen 9 days or so. Will there be any problem with the bees being added getting used to their new queen? They were familiar with their own, but now they are being dumped in with a new colony having their own queen. Think there will be any problems with that?
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These are packages, not NUCs.
You don't really know if "both queens are OK" until both queens start laying OK.
I'd keep them separate until the point where you know that for a fact.
Then may chose to give one queen away (and thereafter combine the colonies if want).
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