When is newspaper combine really required?

[David LaFerney]

I've done newspaper combines before, but i've also just put hives together - after first removing one queen - with no apparent problems. No fighting, no dead bees, no worries. I did it yesterday with three medium size hives - just stacked them together in the middle and removed the other setups. Same thing with 2 hives on another stand. No apparent problems - just massive forraging activity. Hopefully this will maximize the extremely early flow.

So is the need to use a newspaper a myth, or is it sometimes really required?

[RayMarler]

I very seldom use newspaper, but...
I use newspaper if I'm unsure of the queen status of both parts.

[Oldtimer]

There's a number of variables. If the queenless one is strong and the one with the queen is weak, newspaper can slow down the combine and ensure a large number of bees don't kill the queen.
If one 1/2 has laying workers or suspected virgin, newspaper may not be needed, but a queen excluder is, to stop the good queen wandering up into a different bunch of bees and getting killed, the queen excluder can be removed in a few weeks when the virgin would have been killed, or laying workers sorted.

But for the most part I'm like you David, almost never use newspaper even though that's how I was trained.

At seasons end, when I'm wintering down my 3 way nucs, any queenless ones I just pull the divider and let them unite with the one next door, virtually never a problem.

[David LaFerney]

That all makes good sense.... See? That's why I ask questions. I probably would have even listened to my Dad when I was a kid if he had given me advice on the Internet - probably would have saved a lot of trouble then too.

[Charlie B]

I was using newspaper for a while until one day I couldn't find any laying around so I just placed a queenless box over a queenright hive, no problem. I've done about 10 more since then, no problems. They don't fight, they just act confused for a couple hours and then start to act normal again. I've never had the queen get killed. Of course you have to be sure the hive is queenless or no laying workers. I think newspaper is a myth.