Sacha wrote:
He needs to ask the bee-keeping group this but from what I recall, the
two hives would supply their own queens by forming queen cells, if the
workers are old enough and not mainly brood. That way, there is no
danger of the queen being killed off because she's one of their own.
They do this queen cell producing naturally anyway.

But ... there's no queen, so no-one to lay an egg to turn into a queen?

Some bee-keepers
remove the queen cells so as to prevent a swarm round a new queen when
she takes flight. Others believe that doesn't work and that when they
want to swarm, they will.

Actually, I think that that's what caused the queen to be killed in the
first place. Nick had a queen cell being formed, he removed it, and left
some sticky stuff outside the hive cos he's a bit careless. That brought
the wasps in, who attacked the hive and the queen got killed.

In 14 years, my bees never swarmed, the
queens superseding naturally. Is it possible the old queen wasn't
dead? Because that will certainly lead a colony to kill off a new
queen.

I believe there is absolutely no question about the queen's deadness.

And if you're introducing a new queen, it's necessary to have
no queen cells in the colony, iirc. Timing of introducing a new queen
is important too - something to do with the workers having time to
realise they have no queen but accepting a new one who smells different
to the pheromones they're used to. I think she's introduced in a
special cage or container so that she can take on the smell of the
colony and they can 'feel' her with their antennae but can't get to her
to harm her.

Yep, she was put in in a little queen container thing, her attendants were
let out to go talk to the other bees, so they didn't get upset and attack
them in the container and accidentally kill the queen. It just ... Didn't
Work.

It's all very complex and extremely interesting but that
kind of manipulation of a colony may be easier with some expert help
and advice on hand. But from what I know, you can't just put two
colonies together. It's like two warring tribes and mayhem is likely to
result! It's those pheromones which enable each bee to recognise its
own colony and hive out of dozens and dozens, all located in one place.

From what I've been told, you can introduce the queenless colony to the
other colony in a kind of "let them out and find their way to it themselves"
kind of way, as long as they are prepared to be submissive to the existing
colony they are trying to move into. Which is fair enough. It's a bit like
bringing a new lodger into the house. You don't like the look of them, you
tell them to sling it. But these NZ ones are meant to be very placid and
submissive. (Which is probably why the wasps won)