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Combining Queenless hive to another.

3K views 14 replies 5 participants last post by  Fuzzystuff 
#1 ·
Will check a swarm I caught a week or so ago to see if there is a Queen. If there is no Queen I will add it to another hive. I read that placing a sheet of newspaper with 50-70 nail holes will do the trick.

This is my setup... One strong hive with about 60% of the 1st brood box filled. 10 feet from them is the hive I caught that might have no Queen. They are in a deep with 10 frames. Both hives are swarms that I have caught. What is the best thing to do? If it's best to combine what are the steps I need to take. If it is best to pull a frame of brood from the strong hive. what's the best way to to do that?
 
#2 ·
Your description of the combine is good, other than, I would lessen the nail holes by about 49 to 69. Just a small slit to give them an edge to work with is all that is needed. They will remove the paper within 24 hours.

I wouldn't rob a frame from a hive with less than "a full box and then some".
 
#5 ·
Ok. went today to check the hive. They are a small hive. Total about one frame drawn out. What I saw was pollen, uncapped nectar and larvae! I saw no Queen at all. I did see what looks like queen cells. Whats going on?
 
#6 ·
obviously they are queenless. the queen cells may or may not be viable. at some point going down the road to being 'hopelessly queenless' bee will draw what looks like queen cells from almost anything including cells of pollen <quite normal in an abnormal kind of way.

here whenever I combine I like to provide an upper entrance for the top box.
 
#8 ·
This late in the season, don't worry about what you have. Remove the queen cell and combine. One frame won't build enough to make it through an Indiana winter under normal circumstances anyway. If you get it queen right and feed it enough to make it, you could buy two hives for the money.
 
#13 ·
Question: I'm combining a queen-less swarm with a hive and they have yet to eat through the paper. I combined them Friday evening and then the weather turned cold and today in the late afternoon (Sunday) was the first real sun. There is a lot of action but no paper removed. They do have a feeder and entrance so I guess I'll give it a few more days, but my question is should I remove the paper at so e point if they do not chew through it?
 
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