combine or not?

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Nuc

New Bee
Joined
May 18, 2011
Messages
71
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0
Location
Peak District
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
3
Hi, been thinking of combining two hives,both similar size (8/9 frames)but not full brood box's. One colony is prone to rob others so would do away with their Q and combine with newspaper. Am i too late this year or is it still possible if the bees are not clustering during the day? Also if i can go ahead and combine would it be best to leave both bb's one on top of the other so they have plenty of stores or remove top box and fill space in remaining box with stores?
Or should i wait till spring?
Many thanks, Steve.
 
If your sole reason for combining is to get rid of the 'robbing' genes then you might as well wait until spring ... it's really late in the year to be messing with them and your weather in the Peak District is hardly conducive to even a quick look, let alone a combine.

If you are worried that they are not big enough colonies to get through the winter then the best you can do is slap on a load of fondant, make up a couple of DerekM's Kingspan Hive Bonnets to keep them nice and snug and they should be OK with 8 or 9 seams... much smaller colonies survive than this. If they have no stores in the outer frames it might be worth sliding in a couple of Kingspan dummies in place of any empty frames/comb when you put the fondant on but I wouldn't disturb the actual colony and pick a warm(ish) day to do it and the warmest part of the day.

You can sort out what you really want to do with them next spring.
 
Last edited:
8/9 frames - of bees or drawn comb/stores? if the latter, how and when did they move from a nuc to full hive?

what do they have in way of stores?
 
If your sole reason for combining is to get rid of the 'robbing' genes then you might as well wait until spring ... it's really late in the year to be messing with them and your weather in the Peak District is hardly conducive to even a quick look, let alone a combine.

If you are worried that they are not big enough colonies to get through the winter then the best you can do is slap on a load of fondant, make up a couple of DerekM's Kingspan Hive Bonnets to keep them nice and snug and they should be OK with 8 or 9 seams... much smaller colonies survive than this. If they have no stores in the outer frames it might be worth sliding in a couple of Kingspan dummies in place of any empty frames/comb when you put the fondant on but I wouldn't disturb the actual colony and pick a warm(ish) day to do it and the warmest part of the day.

You can sort out what you really want to do with them next spring.

Agree,
Don't combine, too late.
Fed and warm more important.
Sharon
 
I'd say wait until better weather.
On the basis that robbing is hard work, if you feed both colonies they should be kept busy taking the easiest source of food rather than robbing.
You might also just turn the entrances slightly away from each other if they are near or pointing in the same direction perhaps.
 
Thankyou all. Will wait till spring. 8/9 frames of drawn comb with stores and any brood they have. Neither busting with bees but nice small colonies which were made up late summer as part of swarm control. They have done ok but not had enough time to fill the bb completely, though too big for the poly nucs i have. So the queen lives on, for now. Cheers.
 
have these colonies been "uphoused" from nucs and then given extra fresh foundation to work on gradually as needed (with appropriate dummying down)
OR
were they left to own devices rattling around in a brood box with loads of frames of foundation and space to heat?

sounds like they should've been left in poly nucs at outset and allowed to overwinter as strong nucs rather than weak colonies.

make sure hives have decent top insulation and replace empty frames with dummied insulation too.
 
Thankyou dr stitson for your consideration but please dont jump to conclusions. They were indeed in polynucs to start but reached the stage where i had no alternative but to put into full brood boxs. Absolutely crammed in with all 6 14x12's full of brood and stores. They even started making swarm cells again so into full sized boxs they went. Since then they have drawn another 2/3 frames and filled with stores but a lack of late forage in this area hasn't helped. I probably should have combined a few weeks ago but now too late so will get them through winter as they are.
Regards, Nuc.
 
It's too late to mess with them. If they kept growing late into the season then they might need feeding if they are keeping a large brood nest so ensure they have stores.
 
For my small colony I put kingspan inserts inside the hive around the brood nest. That was earlier in the year though.
 

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