[karenarnett]

Wondering if bees from two hives that are and have been queenless for a week, owing to cutdown splits, could be combined? Will the queen pheromone have reduced to a low enough level to allow me to put together bees from two different hives? I want to put some extra nurse bees into my queenless split (that is building an emergency queen cell) from a hive other than their parent hive, for reasons not interesting enough to go into here.

 

[Wolfer]

I generally don't use newspaper when I combine two queen right hives. They fuss a little but the dead bees in the bottom usually won't cover the bottom of a coffee cup.

My guess is you would be just fine.

 

[karenarnett]

Wow, you actually combine queenright hives w/o paper? Interesting to hear that. And reassuring... I'm combining not whole hives but some boxes from queenless, so should be even less of a worry.

 

[Wolfer]

The first time I did it was when I had a drone layer and I couldn't find her. It was getting late and trying to rain and to say the girls were in a snot would be an understatement. I had picked up maybe 50 stingers and at times like this I tend to lose some of my concern for their welfare.

I set one deep on the hive next to it and the other on a hive across the yard. A week later bothe hives were queen right. I reckon the bees sorted it out. I've done it several times since with no issues.
The only time I use newspaper is when I'm combining a small queen right nuc with a strong queen less colony. Just to be on the safe side.

I would really like to hear from other people that have experience in this.

 

[beepro]

To bee safe it is better to do a newspaper combine. This depends on how strong the
hives are. The bees still smell different weeks after they are queen less.