newspaper combine

[beebloke]

Hi,
Tried the newspaper method to combine a hive that was not playing the queen raising game,with a spare 4f nuc.It worked fine,the nuc queen is below and laying.


What puzzles me is the nuc. All frames are empty,no nectar,pollen, sealed or open brood,eggs,nothing.All of which they had.They look like they have come out of storage.

It must have been a smooth transition because the hole in the paper is only small and no dead bees on the rest of the paper.

Never tried combining before,the few books i've read make no mention of having a barren hive left on top.

Is this normal,or related to using a nuc, not a full hive?

Thank you
Beebloke

[George Fergusson]

Interesting. How long did the whole process take? It kinda makes sense to me that the nuc would get robbed of everything worth taking by the departing bees- clearly, the colony below wasn't going to try moving into the nuc.

George-

[Michael Bush]

If the hive is strong they usually take care of the brood in the upper part of the combine. If the hive is not so strong they will usually take care of the larger brood nest and abandon the other brood nest.