If they aren't rioting already, chances are fair they won't. Sprinkle some syrup around and by the time they get done lapping and exchanging scent, there usually isn't more than a little bickering. Be careful not to drown them - I give them a little surup, and watch for a minute, then maybe more if it's "gone in 60..."
Accidental instantaneous combine....
1425
9
One of my splits got robbed out, not a drop of honey left, maybe two frames of bees left, no queen that I could find... so I decided to combine with another young colony that is doing well...
I put two sheets of newspaper down, added a box, put the bees though a shaker box in case there was indeed a queen, put the empty combs in the box over the newspaper. A bit of smoke to push them through the excluder in the shaker box, left them for an hour....
When I came back and pulled the shaker box off, it seemed there weren't many bees on the comb in the box above the newspaper.
Well, it turns out there was a hole in the crease I didn't see and the bees (the few who were left) were marching straight through it into the stronger nuc below.
There were so few left above that I said screw it, what's done is done, I pulled the box and newspaper, and when I looked below, on a couple foundationless frames there were a lot of bees festooning, right where the crease had been. Those frames had been unoccupied when I put the newspaper down...
Is there any chance this WON'T turn into a disaster? Is it written in stone that the host colony will try to throw them out/ fight with them? They came from a robbed out hive and weren't returning from foraging, so they had nothing to offer in exchange for accomodations.... I am worried that despite my mild optimism when I saw them festooning on empty frames, there is going to be a massacre in what was nicely developing hive....
Sometimes this hobby seems like one step forward, two backwards...
I put two sheets of newspaper down, added a box, put the bees though a shaker box in case there was indeed a queen, put the empty combs in the box over the newspaper. A bit of smoke to push them through the excluder in the shaker box, left them for an hour....
When I came back and pulled the shaker box off, it seemed there weren't many bees on the comb in the box above the newspaper.
Well, it turns out there was a hole in the crease I didn't see and the bees (the few who were left) were marching straight through it into the stronger nuc below.
There were so few left above that I said screw it, what's done is done, I pulled the box and newspaper, and when I looked below, on a couple foundationless frames there were a lot of bees festooning, right where the crease had been. Those frames had been unoccupied when I put the newspaper down...
Is there any chance this WON'T turn into a disaster? Is it written in stone that the host colony will try to throw them out/ fight with them? They came from a robbed out hive and weren't returning from foraging, so they had nothing to offer in exchange for accomodations.... I am worried that despite my mild optimism when I saw them festooning on empty frames, there is going to be a massacre in what was nicely developing hive....
Sometimes this hobby seems like one step forward, two backwards...
