[drtoddh]

Hi, maybe adding a nuc to a possibly queenless hive in a few days. Once I confirm queenlessness. It is a small nuc w 3 frames and a queen to be added to a double deep 10.

Is it best...
A). Put nuc frames in a deep on top, queen loose w a newspaper combine?

B) cage queen and keep w her own frames and do newspaper combine

C) cage queen, put her in the new hive and newspaper combine the rest?

D) something else?

Thanks, Todd

What's the best way?

 

[jfb58]

I lost a lot of bees when I tried to use newspaper to combine a large queenless hive with a smaller queenright hive--not sure why, but my impression at the time was uncontrolled fighting. I built a couple of double screened (Snelgrove) boards, and these have worked well. Spraying the bees with 1:1 syrup at the time they were united seemed to help as well.

 

[jdmidwest]

Newspaper combine has worked well for me in similar sized colonies with almost equal numbers of bees. Try not to make many holes in the paper when you combine. The upper hive will chew thru quick enough to get out of the hive with no entrance.

 

[monrovi]

I combined a small nuc with a bigger hive by the newspaper method two weeks ago. It was successful. However, I had made the bigger hive queenless about two hours before the combine.