Second colony moved into the Top Bar Hive

Me performing Chop'n'Crop. I did make a video but after You Tube told me it will take 895 minutes to upload the video I gave up. So sorry, next time maybe.

I had no one to help me do the chop'n'crop today so I had to do it alone, and it was no fun. I would rather prefer to have someone holding the frames while chopping them. Anyway I did it and the bees seem to be settling in BUT ... there is a BIG BUT! I have not seen the Queen, so I'm guessing that I shook her into the top bar hive when moving frames. I would move one frame at a time and would first shake bees into the top bar hive then brush off what's still on the frame and then I would do the chop'n'crop. I did look for the Queen but for some reason I could not find her. This colony has many bees and lots of capped and uncapped brood. Now its too late to inspect after such disruptive procedure. So will wait for 4-5 days or longer before inspecting for egg presence and try to spot the Queen.

I called the beekeeper who sold me the colonies to ask if he clips Queen's wings and he does. Im against such practice and will never do such thing. In my opinion we beekeeper should start releasing at least one swarm into nature to rebuild the feral honey bee population. We lost many feral bees due to Varroa decades ago and if all beekeepers clip Queen wings there is no chance the swarm can leave the hive without a flying bee.

Beekeepers of the world report feral bees returning to their localities and such bees are now treatment free and are adapting to the Varroa mites. This is of great importance. Treating bees is not sustainable and is something to be let go of at one stage. We don't treat ourselves with medication all the time so why treat bees on regular bases with Varroa treatments? If I ever treat I will treat only the colonies showing "deformed wing virus". My two colonies which survived the harsh winter of Värmland were not treated. They survived anyway and are one step closer to co-adapting to Varroa. With Neonicotinoids now being banned in Europe the forage will be much healthier. With healthy biodiverse forage which we do have in this part of Sweden I see no need to treat regularly for Varroa.