Can I just add bees to a mating hive?

[ugcheleuce]

Hello everyone

I have two mating hives (consisting of a bottom board, one honey super, and a roof, but with mostly foundation in it, plus some bees and the newly mated queen) and I wish to add lots of house bees to them from two strong hives.

I've been told that the best way to do this is using the newspaper method: put a super on a bottom board (keeping the flight entrance closed), put some frames in it (no open brood), and then shake some house bees into it (and wait for the flight bees to fly back to the original hive), then put newspaper on it and then the mating hive's box on top of it, and put it in another apiary about 5 km away, and open the flight opening after two days.

However, I'm wondering if I can't just dump the house bees into a bucket (or temporary empty hive) for half an hour (and possibly doing some magic to them), and then pour them (the ones that didn't fly away) directly into the mating hive. I've had some bad experiences with newspaper merges where the bees ignored the newspaper and simply all absconded then I opened the flight opening two days later.

Optionally I could put the queen in a queen cage before doing this, but how long do I have to wait then before I open the flight opening and how long do I have to wait then before I release the queen again?

Thanks
Samuel

 

[For want of a better word]

Why not take a frame of sealed brood from another colony, allow the flying bees to leave from it by walking away a few meters from the colony for a minute or so.

Then place frame with attached young bees into the mating colony that needs a boost of bees?
A gentle misting of warm rosemary water ( Sprig of herb rosemary in 1 pint ( 580ml) of hot water and allow to cool) will mask any smell from donor colony.

I run brood and 1 1/2 on standard UK Nationals.... but should be doable on the ludicrously huge Langstroths!

Yeghes da

 

[ugcheleuce]

Why not take a frame of sealed brood from another colony, allow the flying bees to leave from it by walking away a few meters from the colony for a minute or so. ... Then place frame with attached young bees into the mating colony that needs a boost of bees?

I suppose I could do this. My queen is not marked, though, so I'll have to be extra careful that I don't take the queen with me.

 

[dexter's shed]

Hello everyone
I've had some bad experiences with newspaper merges
Samuel

did you put slits into the newspaper ??
normally bees from underneath would chew through too, so the fact that you say they flew away, makes me think you did something wrong

 

[For want of a better word]

I suppose I could do this. My queen is not marked, though, so I'll have to be extra careful that I don't take the queen with me.

You could filter out the queen by carrying out half of an artificial swarm.... shake all the bees into an empty broodbox with new frames... fit qe.. put empty brood frames on top in another brood box and wait 24 hours... bees will move up leaving queen and drones in bottom box.
Take frame of now filtered brood from top box and carry on as before,, reassemble colony.
may be worth a try
Possibly just shaking bees from your donor colony could possibly have queen with them?

Yeghes da

 

[ugcheleuce]

You could filter out the queen by carrying out half of an artificial swarm.... shake all the bees into an empty broodbox with new frames... fit qe.. put empty brood frames on top in another brood box and wait 24 hours... bees will move up leaving queen and drones in bottom box.

I've done that already, but a week ago, so there wouldn't be much brood left in the frames above the QE, alas.

Possibly just shaking bees from your donor colony could possibly have queen with them?

No, the idea was to shake from frames above the QE only (after smoking quite a bit from below, to increase the number of bees above the QE temporarily).

 

[Finman]

.
Give emerging brood. Added bees return home and kill your queen before returning.

 

[For want of a better word]

.
Give emerging brood. Added bees return home and kill your queen before returning.

Possibly.... may depend upon subspecies and how closely relate bees are... I was suggesting using newly emerged and emerging young bees + a masking with rosemary water.

The taking brood frame away from the colony to allow flying bees to leg it bit!

Yeghes da

 

[enrico]

I am with Finman. I put a new hive with three frames of bees and a laying queen onto the site of a strong hive having moved the strong hive away completely. All the flying bees returned to the new hive. I thought it might make a good strong hive and boost the bees. They just killed the queen!
E

 

[ugcheleuce]

I am with Finman.

Okay, thanks for the advice. I went ahead and used the newspaper method. I'll know in about 5 days if it was a success.

 

[Mrs Shoot]

 

[Mrs Shoot]

I am with Finman. I put a new hive with three frames of bees and a laying queen onto the site of a strong hive having moved the strong hive away completely. All the flying bees returned to the new hive. I thought it might make a good strong hive and boost the bees. They just killed the queen!
E

 

[Mrs Shoot]

I am with Finman. I put a new hive with three frames of bees and a laying queen onto the site of a strong hive having moved the strong hive away completely. All the flying bees returned to the new hive. I thought it might make a good strong hive and boost the bees. They just killed the queen!
E

 

[Finman]

.
I move my mating hives 2 miles away. Then I need not to worry about returning bees. When queens start to lay after10 days, I add emerging bees. Then there is no risk that adding kills queens

I use bees which reared the queens. Then there is no a accepting problems.