Question on uniting

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joolsp

New Bee
Joined
Jul 19, 2010
Messages
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Location
Leeds
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
3
I am planning to unite two colonies but they are currently a short way apart from each other and their entrances face different ways (maybe 10 feet apart ATCF, or should that be ATBF but there is a tree/bush in between them so if i were to move them together it would take longer than 3 days at 3 feet a day each as I have to go round the tree..).
Do you have to mvoe colonies together to unite them? Someone told me they would be ok and re-orientate themselves but I am doubtful.

Also - can you unite through a super i.e. BB, Super, newspaper, BB ? or should i take the super off temporarily?
 
It isn't necessary to have colonies side be side to unite. If you prop a sheet of glass or perspex in front of the hive it will make the departing foragers pause and re-orientate.

You can unite through a super, obviously the queen right colony must be on the bottom and remember if you have any drones in the top half they will be trapped by the excluder, (all my drones have been evicted)
 
obviously the queen right colony must be on the bottom
Alot would put the strongest colony on top and the weakest on the bottom. This way the strong colony is more likely to chew through the newspaper. It shouldn't matter where the queen is.
 
I brought a nuc home and left it closed overnight.

Opened it up in the morning... Bees fly out,, buzz about,, have a look, fly a bit further and then come back..

Later in the day I tipped them into observation hive. Next morning when they woke up and they found thier way out of obs hive they then did a repeat of finding out where they are and how to get back there,,, plus of course there are the bees fanning thier wings and spreading smells to tell everybody where the fronf door is..

so I dont see that you need to worry about them getting lost...
 
Alot would put the strongest colony on top and the weakest on the bottom. This way the strong colony is more likely to chew through the newspaper. It shouldn't matter where the queen is.

Agreed. did a unite last month with queen right colony above. worked fine but you need to make sure queen has gone down when inspecting.
 

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