Alas, the Chuck BEEly Hive is no more, but my Bees will live on in Azzza Hive…hopefully.  Despite their valiant efforts to crown a new Queen Bee, one never came to the rescue.  My Honey Bees were living in a state of chaos and anarchy, grasping at straws to find a new leader.  Would you believe they even laid MORE useless Boys of Summer?  Way to go making a bad situation worse!  So yesterday the remaining Bees of Chuck BEEly Hive packed up their honeycombs and moved into Azzza Hive.  However, their struggle doesn’t end there.

It is with bated breath, that I wait to see if Asa’s Queen, the inappropriately named Princess of Darkness, accepts her new subjects into her kingdom.  I can’t just simply say, “hey ladies, here are your new roommates,” and expect them all to get along.  If done too quickly, war could break out, and my poor leaderless Bees would perish.

So here’s the plan.  With Dad’s help, I made Azzza Hive into a skyscraper!  Since they were by far the stronger hive and had plenty of food stored up for winter, I needed to prepare Chuck BEEly’s brood boxes to add to the top of the healthy hive.  However, before adding it to Azzza Hive, I put some claw marks into a sheet of newspaper and spread the paper between the two hives.  According to my research, the slits made from my claw marks allow pheromones to be exchanged between the two hives.  If all goes well the Honey Bees will be intrigued by their new neighbors and by the time they chew through the newspaper they will be accustomed to each other’s scent and integrated without fighting.

After making the transfer, it was sad to see some of my Bees flying around trying to figure out where they belonged.  But within a matter of minutes their excited buzzing quieted down, and they seemed to be resigned to their new living arrangements.  However, I won’t know for certain how the merger went for about a week.  Paws crossed Azzza Hive will welcome my Honey Bees, and their united kingdoms will survive the winter.  Oh and rest assured, if this proves successful by the spring I will be able to split the hives and Chuck BEEly Hive will thrive!