I caught a swarm on July 4th. It's kind of late for a swarm so I was debating on just combining it with another small hive that I've got. If I do a newspaper combine do I need to make one hive queenless for a few hours before I combine, or can I just remove her then do the newspaper thing?
pinch the head on the queen you dont want to keep and do the newspaper combine no waiting
Quote from: riverrat on July 07, 2009, 10:19:14 PM
pinch the head on the queen you dont want to keep and do the newspaper combine no waiting
I think I'll go ahead and put her in a nuc and keep her. No reason to kill a viable queen. I've just got 2 small hives that will do much better come winter if I combine them now.
I agree. Nuc the swarm and feed all three hives early ,they well be fine through winter... huge populations are not the best for overwintering anyway.. they eat all their stores up quicker