Bee's Fighting

[ronnyclif]

Swarm: Caught in July, feed 1:1 sugar water for 3 weeks and no build up, no queen.

Hive from Wall: Caught in July, feed 1:1 sugar water with comb and brood, doing ok w/ queen.

Today I combined the small swarm (Handful of bees) with the small hive and they were fighting like crazy. I shook the small swarm hive off in front of the other hive figuring they would combine since they were both small.

Will I loose most of my bees from fighting?

[BULLSEYE BILL]

Some. Next time you want to combine use the newspaper method. Put a sheet of newspaper on the top of the strong hive and put the box of bees above that. By the time they chew through the paper they will mix slowly and not fight as much.

[Michael Bush]

If it's only a couple of frames and it's not a dearth I tend to just shake them out in front of the hive. But otherwise I do the newspaper combine. It ALMOST always works.