If I have a declining failed package hive that may have a laying worker and I have a struggling small nuc with a laying queen, can I put the nuc in the same location as the failed hive, and then shake out the failed hive far away so that the non laying workers can return and hopefully boost the nuc? Would I still have to do a newspaper combine in this instance?
JC
I'm thinking a shake out should work...not sure that you have to do it any great distance away. if you do a shame out, there's no need for a newspaper combine...they're mutually exclusive, you either do one or the other, not both.
greenbtree,
I have done a newspaper combine for a laying worker hive before, but I combined it with a strong hive that had a good queen. I have always heard you shouldn't do combine with a weak hive. I also do not have any experience doing a shake-out. Do you have any other hives that you could combine with (besides the struggling nuc), or steal a frame with fresh eggs and put in the laying worker hive?
Quote from: greenbtree on July 05, 2013, 09:43:47 PM
If I have a declining failed package hive that may have a laying worker and I have a struggling small nuc with a laying queen, can I put the nuc in the same location as the failed hive, and then shake out the failed hive far away so that the non laying workers can return and hopefully boost the nuc? Would I still have to do a newspaper combine in this instance?
JC
I had this problem about 3 weeks ago. One hive had a laying worker and I tried relentlessly to re-queen it! But the numbers just started dwindling. I had a another hive that was limping along with a queen that was laying very little. The next inspection, I couldn't find any eggs and almost all of the brood had hatched and I couldn't find the queen. I decided to do a newspaper combine of the two hives and re-queened the next day. I put her in the top box with the bees that had just went queen-less. (It took them about 4 days to release her :jail:) I didn't open the hive for about 10 days and kept my fingers crossed. I checked again. All the bees had merged and I found eggs and capped brood. X:X I'm still learning so you may want to take my 2 cents with a grain of salt. But it worked for me....this time :-D
I don't keep bees as much as they keep me...broke, hot, sticky and stung up! But I love it! :-D
~Angie
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I use to put a mesh between two colonies that they get same odor.
This is very good tool to give the queen.
Before joining put the queen under the cage.
If bees do not bite the cage, they accept it. Let it be there to next day.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qz9aE02ggbw/TDDZKi-VEQI/AAAAAAAAB68/WtIpttlajgo/s320/Pushin.jpg)
If colonies are equal size, you just put them together. 1:3 is enough too.
Yoiu may pour surup on combs that small colony such syrup stomach f