I combined a weak hive that only had a handful of bees with my stronger hive. How long do I have to wait before they're fully combined? I go back to school on Friday...spring break 08!
Depends on your method....
Are we talking about a newspaper combine?
It also depends on how much brood and bees you have between the two.
You are fighting a war of pheromones.
I did the newspaper method. There were really only about a handful of bees in the weak colony. I think winter got the better of them.
24 hours has always been enough for my newspaper combines. Putting two layers of newspaper down, they had chewed through and combined in that time.
Cool, thanks.
If there is only a handful, I'd just shake them in and call it good. They may not get through the newspaper.
Sorry to continue this, but I'm a little stumped. The weak guys I added were in a super, with a bunch of honey and pollen in a few of the frames. I want to take the super off to add a fresh one for upcoming nectar flows, since it has only old wax and I can't put the shallow frames in the deeps, but it's about a third full. The problem is I won't be able to come back home for a couple of weeks and I don't want to miss a flow. Will the bees consolidate the honey and pollen to the deeps, or will they let it be?