bad but interesting day at the hives...

[beefree]

i went to check on the lonely hive 35 miles away yesterday.  they are queenless, without any eggs, larva, or capped brood.  i found a hatched open swarm cell, which could explain a lot.  and i kept hearing this weird crying noise, like a baby (since i had mine, everything sounds like a baby crying to me).  eventually i figured out it was coming from the hive.  evidently that is the sound the queen in the supercedure cell makes before she hatches.  which was a really cool thing to get to hear, but now i am afraid that the bees might kill her when she hatches due to my messing with the hive just beforehand.  
Now my question, if i go back to this hive this week and can find no queen again, should i just cut my losses and combine this hive with the other new one?  Is it too late to expect them to build up enough population and honey stores to survive a Michigan winter?  If there IS a queen,  should i  kill her and combine the hives anyway,  or replace the plastic frames and foundation with something they might like to draw out quicker, and hope that's enough?
beefree

[Beth Kirkley]

I saw no one had answered on this yet. I'm hoping someone with more experience answers. You do have several choices. Maybe you could give us more info on how this hive is doing over all. How large is it now? How much honey stores does it have? How many hive bodies and possible supers does it have on it?
I personally wouldn't have a clue how to help you decide what to do without knowing a little more.

Beth

[beefree]

this hive was installed the last week of April.  they had a shallow half full of capped honey for food, which they ate, and they now have it about half full of uncapped nectar on its way to honey.  the rest of that super is now empty but drawn comb.  On top of this is a deep with plastic frames and foundation, (which they don't like and have only drawn part of one side of one frame).  
They had eggs, larva and capped brood in the same super as the honey (wood frames they liked) several weeks ago, all of which has hatched.  I believe (having seen empty swarm cell) that  the hive has swarmed (probably looking for woodware), and i am back down to 2-3# of bees, w/no queen unless that supercedure cell that was making the piping noise has hatched.  I ordered a queen, but she won't be here til Monday.  I am tired of hauling screaming baby and toddler (neither travels well)  35 miles one way to check on this lone hive on those rare days that it doesn't rain, and am leaning toward just combining what's left with the new hive that is located with the others i am taking care of, just so i only have one 60 mile round trip to make to check on bees.  It would certainly let me get to them more often if i only had one place to go, and make it a lot more pleasant to do.  Any suggestions are welcome.
beefree

[Finman]

they are queenless, without any eggs, larva, or capped brood.  

 evidently that is the sound the queen in the supercedure cell makes before she hatches.  

 should i just cut my losses and combine this hive with the other new one?

 Is it too late to expect them to build up enough population and honey stores to survive a Michigan winter?  

If all brood are all hatched, it is not possible that there can be unhatched queen.  

Development of queen is 14 day from egg and the worker is 21 day.

Also ordinary worker may give a "piip" sound like a gueen. But usually there is a new queen which not yet lay eggs.

In Finland it is now early summer. Bees have not collected anything.  Colony needs 1,5 months to get ready for winter.

But it is summer and flowers in  Mighican, you get honey if you put the colony together with another one.  The rest of swarmed colony is very unable to collect honey.

When you go to your hive there may be a youg fat lady laying eggs.

[beefree]

i will take an extra empty super with me so i have some place to put frames after i inspect them instead of back in the hive.  if there is a queen in there, maybe she just went from an uninspected frame to one that i had already looked at and replaced in the hive.  thanks again.
beefree