How to combine

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Apr 17, 2014
Messages
401
Reaction score
59
Location
Warwick
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
15
I have two hives, one with brood and eggs....I have looked through twice and not seen the queen, but definitely eggs

The other, has no eggs or brood. Again two inspections and no sign of a queen, nor the last time I looked last week.

I was planning on combining the hives but am not sure how to do this best as they are currently only about two metres apart.

The Q- brood box is old and all gummed up, but on a hive stand, so ideally I would want to keep the hive where this one is but to use the Q+ brood box.

Should I put newspaper on top of the Q- Queen Excluder and then the Q+ BB on top? I was hoping that the bees would have to relearn the location after eating through the newspaper.

Any advice ?
 
Before attempting this I would put a frame of eggs from your Q+ hive to your Q- hive and see if they draw some queen cells, having no eggs or brood in not a good indication the hive is Q- only that there is no Queen laying
 
:iagree:
By far the best option atm as that should stop them producing a laying worker. They will then make a QC but ensure you give them the freshest eggs that you can find, then just wait for new Q to come into lay.
 
If and when you get round to combining, a quick squirt of air freshener in the box's and just put them together in what order you want in what position you want. Only started using air freshener last year but never going back to newspaper. So easy and no losses yet!
E
 
If and when you get round to combining, a quick squirt of air freshener in the box's and just put them together in what order you want in what position you want. Only started using air freshener last year but never going back to newspaper. So easy and no losses yet!
E
:iagree:

If you put 'Air freshener Haze' in the search box, there was a previous discussion on the subject some time ago (2012?)
 
If and when you get round to combining, a quick squirt of air freshener in the box's and just put them together in what order you want in what position you want. Only started using air freshener last year but never going back to newspaper. So easy and no losses yet!
E

+1
 
Thanks, I have a frame of eggs, so I will put that in and see what happens.
Good tip on the air freshener too.
 
If and when you get round to combining, a quick squirt of air freshener in the box's and just put them together in what order you want in what position you want. Only started using air freshener last year but never going back to newspaper. So easy and no losses yet!
E

Heavens...that sounds so much simpler than messing about with QX newspaper.
Any time of day? Do you wait till evening or is it best when bees are flying so that any not enmeshed in this find their way somewhere
 
Heavens...that sounds so much simpler than messing about with QX newspaper.
Any time of day? Do you wait till evening or is it best when bees are flying so that any not enmeshed in this find their way somewhere

ITLD, if memory serves me well, was the source.
 
I have cut out a portion of comb from an empty comb with a cookie cutter,
done the same from a frame of eggs and brood and put the cookie of eggs into the hole in the other comb.
Now installed in the hive.......I will wait and see what happens.

How long before they start to draw queen cells?
 
Heavens...that sounds so much simpler than messing about with QX newspaper.
Any time of day? Do you wait till evening or is it best when bees are flying so that any not enmeshed in this find their way somewhere

Any time of the day, but my hives are close together so they always find a home!
E
 
I put the brood comb in with eggs and lavae.
I now have sealed brood. No sign of Queen cells on the comb.

Would the bees move the eggs to another comb? There are a couple of what look like quite old queen cups on another frame, about 2 frames away from the one with the eggs.

Still no sign of eggs or brood in the hive.
Thanks
 
How long ago was it when you last saw brood in the hive? If over three weeks could be that you lost a swarm and all remaining brood has since hatched and a new queen may be waiting to come in to lay. The fact that they capped the brood and drew no queen cells implies a queen is present but doesn't guarantee it. You could try another test frame.

Any polishing of cells?
 
.
This push in cage is usefull to protect the queen when you join hives.
When next day no bee is biting the cage, queen is quite safe.

push_in_cage.jpg
 
Checked the hive again yesterday, just before I combined them with a nuc with a laying queen and found loads of brood and lavae, so they have a queen in there somewhere.
I am pretty happy with them.
 
Fascinating.. absolutely ... ( hope this adds to your thread Sean.a :). )

Any preconditions in using this air freshener method ?

Can you simply , (sorry to repeat / re ask .... but sounds so simple... and in this hobby that sends alarm bells ringing with me !! ) just take a Q+ Brood doc and a Q- Brood box , squirt a dart of Haze Air freshener into both and plonk one on top of other ???

Must you squirt in whilst crown boards still on and roof to contain scent ?

Leave a minute then remove roof and C.Board and then combine ?

Does citrus scent ( re natural replication of Nasanov gland scent work in any way better ?

Again fascinating and if works so easy a serious help for me when I get back from holliers to the chaos of 11 boxes of bees in different stages after a hectic AS season !!

Thanks
 
Thanks BeeJay and to the original poster Lions Den

Fascinating and a plan for me now for my return from holidays inspections next week, so many splits I know I will have some combining to do.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top