🔵 Newspaper Combining Two Beehives Into One

Combining two hives into one the easy way. Perfect learning tool for the beginner that finds they suddenly have a Queenless hive. A single layer of newspaper between the boxes with a few slits in the paper is all you need. Be sure to put the Queenless colony above the Queen right colony. As the bees chew their way thru the paper, the slow introduction helps minimize the sense of an attack and the bees peacefully join together.
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[@wilmafeuerstein434]

Thanks for sharing, exactly what I needed to know.

[@tonywestsbees6042]

I'm glad it helped. Thanks for watching.

[@familyhearingandbalancecen9777]

Thank you for taking the time to show how you combine and the philosophy begins it!

[@tonywestsbees6042]

👍🏻

[@mrtraumaboyy4098]

Thank you Sir!! Gotta do this when I get off in the morning!!!

[@tonywestsbees6042]

It's real straight forward. If the two are not next to each other, move the Queen-less one and leave the Queen Right in its original location.

[@mrtraumaboyy4098]

@@tonywestsbees6042 Thank you sir!!! When I walked up to the hives...that was my first thought. I double checked the queenless hive....and found larvae on one frame. Ended up adding a frame of capped brood and eggs just in case and going to give it another week and see what happens.

[@tonywestsbees6042]

Sounds like a good idea. Don't rush things.

[@pshtewan1980]

Thank you 🙏

[@tonywestsbees6042]

Thanks for watching. I hope this helps.

[@jacoblynch166]

Thank you. I’m in Beavercreek area and will be combining one later today. Lost a new queen and time has come late in the season to combine both my hives.

[@tonywestsbees6042]

Good decision. Do not waist resources. Good luck.

[@kathyhathaway8823]

Great job . I just got done doing the same thing last week and it worked out great . I was surprised tho I peaked in it the next day and there was already a hole in the paper about the size of a softball. I thought it would take a little longer than that but I did spray about two spray from a spray bottle of sugar syrup but it great and found no dead bees . Thanks for your video’s .

[@tonywestsbees6042]

I'm glad things worked out. The only real time I see much fussing is late summer during a dearth, otherwise it goes smoothly. Thanks for watching!

[@danskisbees7348]

It's been warm and it rains at least once a week, the bees are really going through their stores, hives are light, will probably have to start feeding. The Summer dearth will be here shortly.

[@tonywestsbees6042]

Hi Dan, it's been cold and wet most days for a month now. Very few good flying days. First round of Queens was fair, a few no returns, one superceded already (poorly mated?). One I'm waiting to see how she settles out and a few champs already. Rain for the past 48 hours, over 5" so far, in the 50's again today. Our prime honey flow is (should) now thru early June. Not good for honey production this year. Plenty of time for Queen though.

[@juliehagan7667]

After yesterdays inspection, we have a small 1 brood box hive with a new strong queen (we requeened about a month ago) that has some nice capped brood. We have a second hive that has no capped brood but we saw the Queen. We are thinking about killing that queen and moving her bees over to the small hive with the thriving queen using the newspaper method. Do we need to kill the weak queen? Do we need to make sure the top box has an exit for the bees? Thank you

[@tonywestsbees6042]

I replied to this but for some reason it is not showing up. You could just drop one on the other and let the bees sort it out but I would just remove the one Queen, paper combine with one sheet of paper with slits in it. No upper entrance is required, they will be combined within a day or two. An active laying Queen is readily accepted by the bees. I would feed them =for a few days. Fed bees are happy bees.

[@caven930]

Planning to do this today. We have a nuc that needs a boost and a double box colony that needed to be split asap, so we're combining a whole box of bees with the queenrite nuc

[@tonywestsbees6042]

I'm glad this video could help. Thanks for watching.

[@billwebster327]

I had a small queen rite colony with a full deep box with no queen. I put the queen less on top and two excluders with newspaper. Within 4 hours they were out the front door from the top doing a new orientation flight. I’ll check the numbers in a few days but it looks like they took to the new home.

[@shegocrazy]

So you didn't try to capture all the bees from the hive that was going on top? There must have been many bees that weren't in the boxes when you moved them across.

[@tonywestsbees6042]

There were field bees, etc. still out, overall they are a minority and will beg their way into the hive. I have never lost a Queen this way and fighting is minimal. If there is a good nectar flow on, fighting does not happen at all.

[@SortOfaBeekeeper]

This really helped me understand how to combine 2 hives. I have a small queenless hive I want to combine with another small queen right hive. I'm just wondering how the bees reorientatae to the new hive. I have 3 hives in a row 6 feet apart. I am combining the hive on the one end with the hive on the other end. So I'm not sure how that is going to work. I am going to do it at dusk when most of the foragers are back in the hive. What happens to the foragers that don't make it back before I move them? Thank you!

[@tonywestsbees6042]

I'm glad this video helped. This is exactly why I make these videos, to help others out and show what works for me. Any foragers still out when you move the hive will probably beg their way into the next closest hive to where the box had been. You may see a few cluster up where the old hive was for a day or two but soon will figure things out.

[@SortOfaBeekeeper]

@@tonywestsbees6042 thanks for answering. I'm ready to do this!!

[@TheBguenth]

I need to combine a queenless hive that's in trouble with a 2 deep established hive. Will this work and do I leave the 3rd deep on? I hope this makes sense.

[@tonywestsbees6042]

Yes you can, once combined and the hive has settled in real well (couple weeks) you can move frames around as needed or possibly remove one box.

[@TheBguenth]

@@tonywestsbees6042 ok. Thanks!

[@brandonscott7896]

Wanting to join two hives before winter, one is just significantly stronger than the other. Do I need to just remove the queen from the weaker hive and then combine with the newspaper?

[@tonywestsbees6042]

Leave the Queen with her bees. Three pieces of newspaper with cut slits. Feeding the bees help keep them preoccupied too. If the other hive has a laying worker, use window screen between the boxes for 3-4 days. The pheromones will suppress the laying worker and increase acceptance.

[@brandonscott7896]

@@tonywestsbees6042 Thanks for the reply

[@jamiedegioia9080]

Great video! I’m planning to use this method to requeen a really mean hive I have. Going to kill queen, leave her in hive for 48hrs, then add a split I have (with calm queen) underneath the mean hive with newspaper between. Hopefully this will increase their acceptance of new queen. I’m wondering what the best time of the day is to do this? Also, my mean hive is running as 1 x brood and 1 x super… can I leave super on? This will essentially mean I have 1 x brood (new split with calm queen), newspaper, 1 x brood (original now queenless colony) then 1 x super. Hope this makes sense!

[@tonywestsbees6042]

That will work. I would kill the mean queen, wait 7 days, go thru that hive real close, remove all queen cells they make. They will be "hopelessly queenless" at this point. Couple ways to approach this but this is how I would do it. Add the mean hive brood box on top of your calm hive with newspaper between. Do this during the day while the field bees are out. That way you loose the mean hive field bees which are less accepting of a new queen (house bees will accept a new queen easier than field bees do). With this method you still have all the calm hive field force for strength and defense of the nest. Make sense? Once the nest "turns over", the calm genetics will replace the others.

[@jamiedegioia9080]

@@tonywestsbees6042 thank you for getting back to me! Definitely makes sense!

[@mariakeenan4908]

Can you merge 2 queenless colonies?

[@tonywestsbees6042]

I'm sure you can but without a Queen, it's a dying group of bees that will turn laying worker pretty fast once brood is all hatched/emerged out.