Urgent help failed newspaper combine

[Beefriendly]

as some air fresheners can contain formaldehyde and other chemicals

Yet you are happy to use a smoker on your bees?
As quoted from google. "Smoke from wood contains a number of chemicals, including carbon monoxide (CO). ... In addition to particle pollution, wood smoke contains several toxic harmful air pollutants including: benzene, formaldehyde, acrolein and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)".
That is the abbreviated list.

 

[john t]

Yet you are happy to use a smoker on your bees?
As quoted from google. "Smoke from wood contains a number of chemicals, including carbon monoxide (CO). ... In addition to particle pollution, wood smoke contains several toxic harmful air pollutants including: benzene, formaldehyde, acrolein and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)".
That is the abbreviated list.

if you wish to use air freshener thats your choice,im not judging, im saying its not for me

 

[JohnRB]

I've just done a unite with newspaper and substituted the air freshener with a very dilute sugar solution water sprayer with a few drops of peppermint oil added. Worked a treat

 

[john t]

I've just done a unite with newspaper and substituted the air freshener with a very dilute sugar solution water sprayer with a few drops of peppermint oil added. Worked a treat

john ,good to know all went well, i have never used both those methods together, but no reason not too, im not keen of using air fresheners even in the home let alone for my bees

 

[Beefriendly]

I've just done a unite with newspaper and substituted the air freshener with a very dilute sugar solution water sprayer with a few drops of peppermint oil added. Worked a treat

You appear to be confusing two different methods of uniting bees?

With a newspaper unite there is no need for any scents or smells.

The whole purpose of the air freshener unite is that you spray both halfs of bees and stick them together directly with no newspaper in-between.
It's fast simple and works.

 

[Beefriendly]

john ,good to know all went well, i have never used both those methods together, but no reason not too, im not keen of using air fresheners even in the home let alone for my bees

But you are happy to squirt doses of toxic smoke over them at regular weekly intervals?
I'm not judging you, just commenting; as I use toxic smoke and also air freshener for uniting. It's each to their own. To date both me and my bees all survive very happily.

 

[john t]

But you are happy to squirt doses of toxic smoke over them at regular weekly intervals?
I'm not judging you, just commenting; as I use toxic smoke and also air freshener for uniting. It's each to their own. To date both me and my bees all survive very happily.

yes ,im very happy to use smoke for my bees and i have been for years, just like beekeepers all over the world,
wood smoke fires happen in nature ,thats why we use it to smoke bees ,

it all depends how you want to keep bees,i have always stayed as close to nature as i possibly can , there are a lot of things in beekeeping that can be done in a variety of ways,its great to hear of new ways of doing things, if we all work together, sharing our methods and information, people can makeup their own minds of which direction they want to go,
i can understand bee farmers using methods which save them time and repeated visits to apiaries , but im a hobby keeper

if using aerosols is your preferred method knowing whats in them , your choice

 

[Beefriendly]

yes ,im very happy to use smoke for my bees and i have been for years, just like beekeepers all over the world,
wood smoke fires happen in nature ,thats why we use it to smoke bees ,

Gotcha...... okay to apply natural toxic substances vs Man made.
You can also do the uniting with smoke alone as well. You need to heavily smoke both parts you are uniting and then join. Same result as with air freshener just takes longer as the heavy smoking takes a few minutes to perform.

 

[john t]

yes i have tried just using smoke alone when at an out apiary and thats all i had available , and as you say used lots of smoke to cause confusion,
i have also resorted to using a mapbook which i had in the car, they even chewed their way through that without a problem

 

[Hivemaker.]

You can also do the uniting with smoke alone as well. You need to heavily smoke both parts you are uniting and then join

Not something I would like to be using, smoke contains nasty things like formaldehyde and other chemicals, much prefer to use a very quick squirt of air freshener.

 

[Beefriendly]

Not something I would like to be using, smoke contains nasty things like formaldehyde and other chemicals, much prefer to use a very quick squirt of air freshener.

Yes, you would wouldn't you.....

 

[mickbees23]

LOL,,

I never use newspaper to unite, I do let smoke drift across the frames as usual just as a precaution ( toxic smoke if I have no non toxic available ) then I just expose them to the light for 5 mins, then dump them all into a brood box together, put the brood frames back in alternating if brood in both colonies making sure the queen is on one of them, never had a fight or balled queen yet......... Just saying

 

[Woodland bees]

An update, as it was my OH's original post. The bees seemed to sort themselves out in the end, didn't really nibble through the newspaper and one went through when it was cut.

Hive now seems to be doing well with plenty of brood and plenty of bees, although they don't seem to have a huge amount of new stores built up yet.

 

[enrico]

Phew! Thanks for the update. It is always good to know how things turn out. I wish more who asked for advice would say which advice they used and how it worked
E

 

[beeno]

Thanks for the update. Same scenario here as it turned out. Removed most of the newspaper on the first inspection.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Stichwort - was it the Daily Mail you used? Tends to keep groups divided....
Try Private Eye next time - they'll have a ball

 

[Saffabee]

I just united two hives by spraying diluted essential oil. I bought food grade spearmint oil. I mixed 8 drops into a little honey as this apparently makes it easier to dissolve in water, made up in an approx 500ml water spray bottle and used that. Unite went without a hitch, only used once though so may have just been luck will need to use it long term to be sure it actually works.