Uniting two weak but queenright colonies in mid-October — which queen do I keep, and is it too cold for newspaper?
Devon, fourth year, seven hives. Two of them are simply too small. Both have laying queens and no obvious disease; both cover about three and a half frames of bees and both hefted light enough that I've been feeding them since September.
The queens: one is this year's, mated late after a supersedure, laying a small but tidy patch. The other is a 2024 queen, decent temper, pattern getting patchy. Everything says keep the young one, but the young one heads the smaller and slightly grumpier of the two colonies, which I can't fully explain.
And the mechanics. It's 11-13°C in the days now and the bees cluster loosely at night. A newspaper unite depends on them chewing through, and I've seen a thread here where it stalled for three days in cooler weather. Do I still use newspaper, do I make more slits than usual, or is it now late enough in the year that a direct unite is safe because there's no real flying and little to fight over? And do I find and remove the old queen first, or let them sort it out?
#uniting#weak-colonies#queen-selection#devon
▲ 10 votes💬 4 replies✅ Solved
4 replies
CorkBeeRon · Oct 13, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer
Cork. Keep the young queen and do not let them sort it out — find and remove the older one yourself. Leaving two queens to fight is how you end up with neither, or with the one you didn't want. On the mechanics: newspaper still works at 11-13°C, just use a single sheet and put a few more slits in it than you would in July. Do it late in the day.
ImkerinLena · Oct 13, 2026
Agreed on the queen. On temper: a small colony often reads as grumpy because there are fewer bees to absorb your fumbling and they are defending a small amount of everything. Judge her again in June with a proper population before you write her off. DevonBees_Em, two three-frame colonies united in mid-October is the right call — one seven-frame colony has a real chance.
PerthshireBees · Oct 13, 2026
Perthshire. I do direct unites in late autumn once flying has more or less stopped and I've never had a fight worth the name, but newspaper costs nothing and removes the risk, so I'd use it anyway. What matters far more is that the combined colony ends up heavy — unite first, then check the weight, then feed if you need to while it's still warm enough for them to take it.
DevonBees_Em · Oct 14, 2026
Done Monday evening — old queen out, newspaper with a dozen slits, young queen's box on top. Peeked under the roof Wednesday and they'd chewed through and were carrying the paper out. Hefts properly now.