Bees eat their way through...

I tried two methods of merging hives a few days ago.  The first one, I tried the sugarwater-vanilla method.  My first attempt, I only transfer one frame from the queen-less hive to a queen-right hive (I hope I used the term correctly...).  All went smoothly.  No one seems to mind the presence of strange bees with them.  So, the next day, I tried the same method again, but these time I transferred 3 frames from the queen-less hive.  Everything was ok at first, but later that day, I saw bees clustering around the queen as if ganging up on her, trying to hurt her.  I tried to break them up.  The queen managed to walk away, but other worker bees began to cluster around her as soon as she got near them.  They seem to be pulling and biting her.  That day I thought I would lost a queen.  I really felt there was nothing I can do to save the queen.  I can not guard her all day, so I decided to let them be. I really do no know what was happening in the hive.  If I interfere, I might do more damage than good.  So I just hope and pray that the queen will still be there the next day.  And guess what?  The queen was still alive and well, as if nothing happened to her.  The workers clustering around her, biting her legs, pulling her, was probably meant to protect her... I do not know... but I have not read these things in books on beekeeping.  I probably never will... but I saw it and learned something new... it was fascinating!

My second merging attempt I tried the newspaper method.  Two to three days after, the bees managed to chew their way through the newspaper.  But they chewed at the rear part of the hive and no way near the holes I punctured.  I lowered the frames to the main hive and nothing interesting happened later on.  The newspaper method seems less stressful than the vanilla method, but then again, I merged two queen-less hives together.  Anyways, both methods work fine. I guess worker bees will not normally hurt the queen, especially if she is the only one in the hive and no candidates to replace her.

Trust in your bees... they know what they are doing...

So, as it turned out, I really had nothing to worry about my bees not finding their way out.  When I arrived at my humble apiary, I saw the bees clustering at the box hive entrance below.  Bees, after all can find their way back home miles away!

But some bees still insist on using the old entrance...

I checked the hives and still found some wax moth larvae.  I had no choice but to crush them.  The bees did not seem to get as irritated as before and allowed me to do my chores.  The remaining three hives look better (I lost one to wax moth).  I am an amateur, but I think I am correct to say that the colonies are growing.  Though, I still have not seen their queen.  I really need to finish my third hive converter.  One colony is still using the original hive they came in with and it really has no more room for the bees to expand.  If I don't add new suppers soon, the bees might end up swarming again!

There could be a new threat to my colonies.  I heard of news that small hive beetles have already reached our country.  I saw this in one of the hive.  It is several times bigger than what we have in CVSU.  Unfortunately, my photo is so poor I can not use it as reference and I was not able to take a sample with me.  But I do pray this is not a SHB!  I just hope that the increase in bee population will help keep all pests in check.