Combining a strong hive with a newer hive.

[hexadecimal]

So I have a hive which has failed to raise a new queen. They are hopelessly queenless now.

They are currently occupying a 14x12 brood box and 3 suppers and are very full (of bees).
I don't want to give them the opportunity to raise a new queen as i want to reduce numbers off hives, so adding a frame of eggs isn't really the way i want to go.

I have a new queen which is laying well in another 14x12 hive that i would like to combine.

The large q- hive is the position I would like to use with the q+ hive aprox 6m away.

How is best to combine?

Would it be move q+ hive to new spot with magic twigs and newspaper, then q- hive and supers above newspaper?

Would i be able to put a qe above the q+ box to ensure she stays there to make removing the second brood box easier after they combine?

Is there a better way to combine the very strong hive with the smaller and fuse the strong hives location.

Cheers for any suggestions.

 

[JWF]

You need to put whichever hive you move on top of the other hive, and unite through newspaper, otherwise they'll just fly back to their old location.

Magic twigs are fairly useless in my experience.

You can move either hive, just do it so they end up in the best position for you.

It sounds like you will end up with a huge colony which I'd expect will look to swarm - and doing a thorough inspection on a double 14*12 brood box will be quite a job, so hope you have the confidence to get stuck in.

Personally I would give a frame or two of eggs/BIAS to the queenless hive, and depending on the strength of the hive you could potentially add another frame or two in a week or so - this will bolster the strength of the queenless hive and may discourage the other hive from swarming (possibly!). That way you'll have two decent sized colonies which should be just about strong enough to give you a decent summer crop. Plus you'll have the benefits of having two hives, so hould you have a queen problem you have a way of getting out of a hole.

 

[enrico]

The ideal minimum number of hives is three. It can sort many problems. But..... There is no problems with combining as above. Good luck
E

 

[Beefriendly]

I have a new queen which is laying well in another 14x12 hive that i would like to combine.

The large q- hive is the position I would like to use with the q+ hive aprox 6m away.

You can do it either way...but I'd be swayed by keeping Q+ in same position and adding Q- above. I'd use newspaper to delay uniting as flying bees from Q- will usuallyh re-orientate after a delay in flying..., but if you only have the 2 hives... air freshener works and the flying bees will find their way into the "only" hive.
I'm certain there will be other opinions...and most of them will also work;.
But no such thing as magic twigs

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I usually leave the Q- hive in situ and just put the Q+ colony on top for the unite, never had an issue that way, in fact, I'll be doing one tomorrow.

 

[hexadecimal]

Cheers all.

Appologies I actually have 4 hives at this particular site not just 2 as in my little bio thing.

If putting the q+ hive on the top of the q-. Is it ok to use a QE above the supers to prevent the queen getting in and laying in them? Then once combined shuffle boxes about, add extra supers for space to be able to remove the second brood box.

Rodger on the potential swarming and no worries about going through double brood and sheer size. It won't be the first time of working a hive taller than me

 

[masterBK]

Before uniting using newspaper make sure no wild comb on frame top bars of bottom colony or on frame bottom bars of top colony otherwise risk of large tears in the paper. I always use an excluder to hold the newspaper down and this has the advantage that you know which box the queen will be in when you need to reduce down to one BC. Also means queen doesn't enter the other box too early before the workers have had time to mix.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If putting the q+ hive on the top of the q-. Is it ok to use a QE above the

I'd say desirable and wise to - stops the queen wandering into the other colony's 'territory' before they are fully united as well.