I ended up buying two packages with 3lbs. each of Italians. They were very easy to work with and they went into the two new hives quite easily. I belatedly discovered a problem in one of the new hives, though and only after I installed the bees. I had set up both hives with stands, bottom boards, brood boxes and covers several weeks ago in preparation for the new bees. When I looked at the entrance to the hive, though, I discovered a familiar looking type of web. I immediately pulled frames out from that side of the hive only to confirm my suspicion...a black widow had decided to make use of the space. I made an attempt to squash her, but failed. I put the frames back in and decided that several thousand bee's could probably address the problem better than I. Fingers crossed.
I inspected my original hive, Hive #1, and confirmed that although queens had hatched, none had returned from their flight. At this point, I was 3 weeks past my split and the colony was starting to shrink. This made for a critical situation. I spoke with Mike Stephano at the last Mt. Diablo Beekeepers Association meeting and he said that he might have some spare queens at the bee pickup this past Saturday and that I could get one from him if he had them. He also suggested to take a frame of brood from the split and move it back to hive #1, but since hive #2 was so small I decided that wasn't a viable option. After installing the new packages and confirming the situation with hive #1, I went back to the bee pickup and bought a New World Carniolan Queen (Russian stock) from Mike and returned to hive #1 and installed it. We'll see how she does.
I returned to the hives yesterday and the girls were looking good. The workers were still working away at the queen candy in all the queen cages. Everything was humming along quite nicely.
