combining hives with very little stores

[goertzen29]

I have 6 colonies right now, all are very low on stored honey.  I plan on combining into 3 hives and keep feeding.  Since all the hives are light should I pull them all apart to make sure all the frames with stored honey are used?  Or should I combine them (All double deeps) first then reduce the size of the hives?

I just want to do whatever is quickest because I know winter is coming and right now the bees are in bad shape (I'm guessing all my hives have 1/3 or less of what the need to winter on).

thanks
Jay

[AllenF]

Pull all the empty frames to make a full deep for each hive, then newspaper combine. If you start to feed with 1 to 1 syrup, they will build numbers and if they already have enough honey stored, they may make it with 6 hives.

[caticind]

I see a lot of regret on this board over combines gone wrong on this board.  Never done one myself, but it seems like a shame to sacrifice half your queens if there is any other option.

Is it too late to feed them in your area?

[goertzen29]

I appreciate your concerns about sacrificing my queens.  I did already combine down to 3 hives for a couple reasons, 1) all my hives were very light, like 20lbs-30lbs of honey light.  Last year I believe each hive had close to 90lbs of honey going into winter.
2) I figured it would be easier to feed 3 hives than 6, and I can combine stores from each hive.

I think this is a cumbersome method because I have to dismantle each hive in order to leave the frames with stores and eliminate the empty frames and then feed more on top of that but I dont see any other good options at this point.  It is pretty late for feeding in my area but we have had abnormally warm temps (daytime highs still in the 60s to low 70s) so I'm going to keep feeding like crazy for at least another week or so and see what I can get them to store.

This is only my second season so if there are other suggestions I appreciate them. Next year I will for sure be more attentive to hive weights earlier so I'm not scrambling like I am this year.
Jay

[Michael Bush]

Combining won't solve the food issue.  I'd feed like crazy until you get some weight on them and consider dry sugar for supplement:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm#drysugar

[goertzen29]

I am feeding like crazy, I just thought I could feed 3 hives better than 6, and with more bees I assumed they will take the sugar water faster and dry it down faster.  That was my thinking. 

MB--How long do you feed since I know you are in NE as well?  The days are nice now but the nights are getting colder, at what point will I be doing harm by introducing moisture in sugar syrup?  I did supplement dry sugar last year and will again but they need alot more than that right now.