Combining Hives using Newspaper. Lots of fighting and dead bees

[jenkinsbrynmair]

so no real reason then

 

[Curly green finger's]

it doesn't

.

 

[Penninetrader]

I have previously used some baking paper taped together, seemed to work ok

 

[Garry R]

Single broadsheet or two tabloid overlapping?

Washington Post!! They expressed no opinion as regards which goes on top although there's no guarantees that there isn't any trouble when the final result is realised. (I am talking about bees)

 

[Penninetrader]

Washington Post!! They expressed no opinion as regards which goes on top although there's no guarantees that there isn't any trouble when the final result is realised. (I am talking about bees)

Well that is not a source to be relied upon .

 

[Erichalfbee]

Single broadsheet or two tabloid overlapping?

Private Eye

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Private Eye

about the only publication that holds these buggers to account

 

[ericbeaumont]

.

It might.

 

[ericbeaumont]

unless the overlap is very tightly stretched bees will crawl through any gap they can.

Meeting too early = fighting.

perforate a few holes in the newspaper

Counter productive (as above).

 

[drdrday]

What isn't good is to have paper flapping outside

Oh dear, I've been doing it all wrong then!!
Must have just been lucky to never have a newspaper unite fail

 

[Erichalfbee]

Oh dear, I've been doing it all wrong then!!
Must have just been lucky to never have a newspaper unite fail

But it looks SO untidy!

 

[ericbeaumont]

newspaper unite fail

Late one summer the newspaper was intact after a week; I didn't believe them, so took it away and put the boxes together. All went well.

 

[Curly green finger's]

It might.

Yeap even just opening a hive bees will have heads in cells .
I’ve used sugar water spray to unite fiesty colony’s before

 

[Curly green finger's]

A mate of mine dribbles honey over the seems queen+ on top no paper then Unites.

 

[Antipodes]

Tried a combine 2 days ago with a Queenless into Queen right.

Queenless on top separated by newspaper, stuck a Queen excluder between just in case.

Checked today and there are a lot of dead bees outside, Clearly some fighting has been going on. Quick check of the newspaper and it has holes through it. Looks like they didn't want to mix.

Probably shouldn't have but I've removed the Queenless off, I don't want to risk my Queen dying before winter comes through. I've spotted her quickly, she's alive and well.

I'm probably going to let the Queenless die off, They were a caught swarm and very aggressive so it's no big loss but in future what should I have done different?

The Queenless colony were in that state for a good 3 weeks, I thought they would be buzzing to get a new Queen.

I filmed this yesterday. Single screen between colonies- in preparation for combination over a single sheet of newspaper. The board is a simple feeder board, with the feeder hole covered with mesh.

 

[OldFarm]

Tried a combine 2 days ago with a Queenless into Queen right.

Queenless on top separated by newspaper, stuck a Queen excluder between just in case.

Checked today and there are a lot of dead bees outside, Clearly some fighting has been going on. Quick check of the newspaper and it has holes through it. Looks like they didn't want to mix.

Probably shouldn't have but I've removed the Queenless off, I don't want to risk my Queen dying before winter comes through. I've spotted her quickly, she's alive and well.

I'm probably going to let the Queenless die off, They were a caught swarm and very aggressive so it's no big loss but in future what should I have done different?

The Queenless colony were in that state for a good 3 weeks, I thought they would be buzzing to get a new Queen.

I had two colonies this year that appeared to be queen less, instead they had drone laying queens. I assume the workers had been mopping up all the drone eggs she was producing. It was several weeks before the workers allowed any of the larvae to develop and then all became clear. If you unite a colony like these with a Q+ colony, they will fight.

You can shake out (if it's warm enough) the Q- colony or sieve them through a QE into a box on top of your Q+ colony. Fingers crossed your queen in the Q+ colony was not injured in the fighting.