I've a quick question, one of my hives lost a queen about two weeks ago the last inspection showed no eggs, young brood or capped brood except for some scattered drone cells. I put two frames of young brood in it last week hoping it will requeen it's self and now today I have just caught a small secondary swarm just outside my yard. Since the swarm is so small I am newspaper combining it with the queenless hive, do you think it will work?
A combine should work. You don't have to use newspaper since the queenless hive should be welcoming. A little mist of vanilla would be a good idea.
If you have a few scattered drone cells,then couldn't you have a laying worker. If you do they could kill the small swarm. You may need to newspaper, shakeout or something. Just my opinion,may not be correct. Good luck with your bees.
Joe
News[a[er combine won't hurt nothing to be safe. For a fast newspaper combine, draw a
bi X out of honey with your finger on the newspaper. Cuts the 3-4 days to less than 2 days.
I caught the swarm just as the sun was going down last night and needed to do something with it fast. I couldn't think of anything else to do so went ahead and did the newspaper combine, I'm not sure if I have laying workers or not in the hive and was hoping that adding the brood last week would help. Can't do a shake out, the hive is stacked pretty high with honey supers and there isn't a lot of drone brood so I'm not getting crazy yet with the hive.