Can I mix and match bees?

[KatGold]

I'm guessing not, but I have to ask to learn.

I have one very strong TBH and one very, very weak TBH. They are about 2 miles away from each other. I want to take a bar of brood from the strong hive and put it in the weak hive. I understand that I can do this to increase a population.

But, when I pull out the brood bar it will be full of bees. What if I don't brush them off? Can I transplant those bees from one hive to the other along with the brood? Will they take to the new queen? Will there be a war? Has anyone tried this?

Thanks!

[WWW]

Kat, I have done this with my hives to strengthen the weaker ones and there has not been any fighting. At one time I moved four frames,( two sealed brood, two honey) with adhering bees and placed these in a weaker hive and the hive immediately accepted them with no problems. Just make sure that your queen from the strong hive is not on the frames that you are moving or you will be guaranteed a war.

[G'ville beek]

I also had to assist a weak hive. What I did was remove a frame of brood, shook it slightly (what fell back into the hive , possibly older workers, the nurse bees remained) making sure no queen was present and placed into weak hive. All will happy in the weak hive. They fill the love, and care you are expressing, and will respond with a quick build up, so to reward you with honey and assurance that if you work with them, they will show you what they need.

[johng]

You can mix frames of brood with attached bees from multiple hives without any problems.

[arnoldhicks]

Make sure that you find the queen before you take brood from the hive to transfer.Set the brood in a box with a cover open a little to let the old bees to leave for a short time.Spray brood with water lightly, wait one hour before putting in the week hive

[WWW]

I agree, mixing frames from different hives is no problem but as stated make sure the queen doesn't come along for the ride. Arnold, although I have never had a problem when adding frames from one hive to another your method is a sound one if a person wants to make sure that no field bees are on the frames.

[KatGold]

Fascinating.

Okay-truth out here. I actually did it before consulting you folks. But when I dropped in the capped brood with the nurse bees, the pitch of the buzzing when up dramatically. Either that, or I was so afraid it would that I thought it did.

Then I thought "Girlie, you are the worst beekeeper on earth" and tapped into this great body of knowledge to see what you had to say. And now I'll admit it, I was too ashamed to say that I had already done it.

I'm not a very good liar.

I just checked in on them. Everyone seems perfectly happy! It seems that I did not accidentally take the queen from the strong hive. I never did find her, but I never have found her (since my store bought queen with the lovely yellow dot was replaced by a queen the hive made). I just cannot find her, so I couldn't really say one way or the other if I left her behind. But happiness in the hive seems to tell me what I need to know.

I need help on this topic, but that's for another day (and possibly, a visit to my hive with another, experienced beek).

This is great! My little hive was struggling so. I'm thrilled to give them a population boost!

[DamSutt1986]

I have probably switched over 10+ frames just in the last 2 months between hives. Never had a problem. Sometimes I tap the frame to shake off some bees. I heard that the younger nurse bees have a better grip on the comb usually. They are the ones that I want to go with the comb.

[WWW]

Kat, I wanted to add that when moving capped brood to another hive you will find that the queen is usually found on the open brood frames so the chance of moving her accidentally is reduced however you should always make sure where she is to be on the safe side.

If you are using a smoker as I do reduce the amount of smoke you are using to just a few puffs and you will find the queen a lot easier, queens will run from smoke when too much is used making them nearly impossible to find. When I do a hive inspection I give just a few puffs upwind so as to let it drift across the frames, do not blow the smoke down into the frames.....Bill

By the way I do not think of you as a liar, you just postponed telling us the whole story and that's no problem, there is nothing wrong with keeping some of our thoughts to ourselves.

[firebug]

I keep a small bottle of water with just enough vanilla to smell in it. I try to spray the frames Im moving and the hive they are going to. Seems to work good when making nucs, getting frames from f hives.

[SRBrooks]

I would like to do the same for a dwindling hive. If the hive is weak, however, can they care for a big batch of brood that suddenly appears?

[DamSutt1986]

That's why I leave the nurse bees on the frame when you move it. If you shake off the bees I don't think they would be able to care for them. Make sure they are capped in that case too. I just had to do that this morning. One new cut out only had like 200-300 bees. I tripled the population just with the bees on the frame, then figuring in the 2000 brood I added, they should be in a better situation by next week!

[WWW]

Ditto on the nurse bees DamSutt, my thoughts as well.