The queen is dead! Long live the queen!

Ouch!  That was the final straw.  An angry bee stung me on the back of the neck while I was in the roses, 10-15 feet from the hive.  And the bees had not been disturbed for days.  This was not the first unprovoked attack.  Amaya had been stung on the scalp while looking at the hive from the path and I had been harassed while doing yard work in the vicinity of the apiary.  It was time to re-queen.
The first step was to determine which hive was defensive.  I was pretty sure it was #1, but I needed to be certain.  An internet search turned up different ways to measure defensiveness.  The leather square seemed to be the one that would be best.  Other articles stated that a 2"square of blue suede had been used.  Where to get blue suede? Aha!  One of the marimba players owns a leather shop, and yes, he has blue suede scraps I could have.  Off to downtown Santa Cruz.  I got two shades of blue not knowing which would be best. I made my squares and went out to test the hives.

There was no reaction at any of the three hives.  So I contacted Tom Seeley and asked if something needed to be done to the leather first.  He replied,

I would remove the outer and inner cover of each hive, and see which one has bees flying up at your when you do so.  If one is super defensive, it will start attacking in response to having the cover removed.  Well, duh.  I did just that and there was no question that #1 was overly defensive (for me).

Next step, find a new queen.  I contacted the queen suppliers I have used, but either they had no queens or the price was too high ($35 for the queen, $38 for shipping).  Posting in the local bee guild forum produced no response.  Finally, I found Wildflower Meadows.  Their bees were what I was looking for and they had good reviews.  They would ship for $18.50.  I ordered a queen and picked a date for shipping.
The old queen needs to be removed from the hive 24-48 hours before installing the new.  So I needed a queen catcher.  There are two types, clip and cylinder/marker.  I ordered the latter.
The queen was to arrive today, so yesterday morning I went to capture the queen.  I also had to find any queen cells present and destroy them.  I also planned to do an alcohol wash mite count to see if the oxalic acid/shop towel had been effective.
I found the queen in the bottom box and captured her easily.

There was brood in the bottom (deep) box and the next two mediums.  I did the mite count, a dismaying >30, and selected a frame on which I would place the new queen.  The old queen went into the freezer and she will get a proper burial.
The large number of bees flying around and pinging my head reinforced my decision to re-queen.
I would like to treat the mites with MAQs but it feels too risky to both treat and re-queen at the same time.
Today I stopped by UPS to pick up the queen.  

The queen marked with green

She's in there with her attendants.  This is the best picture I could get.
She is now in the hive and I will take a look in a week to see if she is out of the cage.  I will also treat for mites.

First extended oxalic acid follow-up

I wanted to see how much of the shop towel the bees had removed, so I took a look into the hives a couple of days ago.
The bees had chewed nearly none of the towel in #2 & 3.

Hive #3

Hive #2

These hives had only a deep box so I do not think the bees had much of an incentive to get the towels out of there way.
However, the towel in #1, which has supers above the towel, was nearly half gone.

Hive #1

The frames in both 2 and 3 were full of bees,as you can see in the pictures.  I put a super on each.  Now it seems that my new configuration will be one deep and one medium for brood.  Of course, this may change back to two deeps.
As previously mentioned, I want to build a long lang.  It dawned on me that I could probably use the board from my extra deeps.  This would obviate the need to cut rabbets. 
On another note, I am committed to reaping some grapes this year.  Just see the birds get them now!

The are over 60 bags each around a grape cluster.

Extended-realease oxalic acid

For some time, oxalic acid has been used to control mites.  It is effective, safe and does not affect the honey and does not seem to hurt the bees.  It is very effective at killing phoretic mites.  It is usually applied by a dribble or vaporization.  One drawback is that it does not penetrate into the capped brood where the mites are developing.  Randy Oliver, whom I have mentioned in many blogs, has been working on a way to deliver oxalic acid over an extended period of time.  This link will take you to his progress report. 
I did a second alcohol wash mite count on  #1 4 days ago- 15 mites, or 5%.  This is definitely above my treatment threshold.  The next day I prepared and applied oxalic acid impregnated shop towels as per Randy Oliver.  The following morning I saw evidence that the bees were chewing up the towel on the tray below the screen bottom.