Hives united. Olea's hive queenright.

A lot was done today.
I decided to unite the nuc with the new hive.  The new hive isn't very populous and I didn't want to just leave the nuc all winter.  I figured it had to be getting pretty full and with only five medium frames, there wasn't room for both brood and honey.  Most of what I could find out about combining hives advised dequeening one of the hives first.  Jeremy Rose says in his book that this is not necessary.  The thinking in favor of dequeening is that when one doesn't, one of the queens will be killed by the other or by the workers and it may not be the one you want to be removed.  Typically, one wants to keep the younger queen.  Also, if the queens fight, both may be injured or die and you would be left with no queen.  I did some online research and found little about not dequeening.  One paper from The New Zealand Journal of Agriculture found no difference in queen survival and mating between dequeening and not dequeening.  However, they cite other articles that show a 33% loss when not dequeening.  I posted the question on the Santa Cruz Beekeepers Guild group, but no one replied.  In any case, as you will see, the issue is moot.
I had decided to remove the queen from the nuc, mainly because I thought it would be easier to find her since there are only five medium frames.  Also, this queen is likely to be the original queen I got from Jeremy and therefore the older.  Here's how it went.

Dessicated thymol gel

Super ready for frames

First I opened the new hive.  I took out the Apiguard tray.  It had been in for over a week.  All, or at least most of the thymol should have been gone.  But, no.  The majority of it was left and dried out.  Instead of leaving it in, I just tossed it.  Then I had to run to the shed to get the four deep frames to fill in the gap I had made when first putting in the Apiguard.  I put the frames in, then placed a sheet of newspaper over the box and made 4 slits in it with my hive tool.  I put on a medium box with five frames in and room for five more.  One by one, I removed the frames from the nuc.  I looked carefully for the queen, ready to grab her and put her into a glass I had handy.  No queen on the first frame, and it was placed in the super.  The same with the next, the one after, the one after that and, finally, the same with the last.  No queen!  At least, no queen seen.  I figure she's in there and I had just inadvertently used the no dequeening method.  After all the frames were in, I put the Vivaldi top on and then the lid.  The bees from the nuc have no exit and will have to chew through the newspaper.  Since this takes a few days, I'll wait a week and then inspect.  As the bees chew through the newspaper, I figure I'll see bits of it on the ground in front of the hive.  We'll have to wait and see how the no dequeening method works.

Old hive with united super

Returning foragers were returning to the nuc only to find their home gone.  I hope they eventually find their way safely into some hive.
Next, I moved my attention to the old hive.  I wanted to see how the honey crop was coming and to remove the drone frame and replace it with a regular frame.

Drone frame with drone hatching

There was essentially no honey in the supers.  The top brood box was heavy with honey, but I didn't look at individual frames.  I took out the drone frame and put in a regular frame.  The drone frame was not full of comb and there was only some capped drone cells.  I did see some drones hatching.  I then looked at several frames trying, unsuccessfully, to spot the queen.  There was healthy brood and larvae, but no queen seen.  I put the old hive back together.  It doesn't look like there will be a honey harvest this fall.
On to Olea's hive, and finally, some good news.  I saw capped brood, small and large larvae and eggs.  I didn't see the queen (of course), but with eggs I know the hive is queenright.  The population is small, there is no honey other than on the edge of the brood and I know there are mites, probably a good number.  I don't expect this colony to survive, but if it does, I will requeen it with one of Honey Bee Genetics' queens.  If it doesn't, I'll consider buying a package or maybe splitting my old hive.
I had placed the drone frame on top of the old hive while I worked on the others.  There was nectar in some of the cells.  The bees began to gather, eventually forming a small cloud. After they had eaten all the nectar/honey, I took the frame onto the deck and checked the drone pupae.  There were about 100 capped drone cells and I examined 27.  Two had mites (two mites on each).  I don't know how to interpret this data, but I think it's ok.  I'll be doing sugar shake counts in the near future.

Wax moth damaged comb

Wax moth frass

I still had the old frame that I got from Kathy Niven last year sitting in the shed.  I wanted to take a look at it today.  It had been resting on the box I got my package in last year.  When I picked it up, I was shocked to see a heavy infestation of wax moths.  There was a pile of frass on the box as well as several larvae.  The larvae quickly headed away from the light crawling into the cracks of the box or elsewhere.  The comb also had larvae on it as well as some sort of yellowish coating.  I left the frame outside.  I think I'll add it to my wax collection that I will eventually melt and purify.