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Author Topic: Merging Hives  (Read 5821 times)

Offline BigRog

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Merging Hives
« on: November 05, 2004, 11:03:29 pm »
I added a nuc to my hive on wed.
I put them in a extra deep that John gave me and put newspaper between the supers.
How long should I wait till I take the newspaper out?
It looks like the bees in the upper super are clusteredthere is very little activity in the entrance I made for them (Kind of like a imri shim)
The normal entrace was fairly busy to day So what do I do here?
Should I bring these hives down to The hive body and a super? or leave it three high?

Any ideas, thoughts, comments would be welcomed.
"Lurch my good man,…what did you mean when you said just now that 'You've got better things to do than run my petty little errands'…….?"

Offline golfpsycho

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Merging Hives
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2004, 11:46:33 pm »
they usually do a pretty good job of getting the newspaper out once they start integrating.  So I would give them a couple more days, and if warm enough, take a look.  THe nuc isn't going to abandon the brood you moved in with them, so they're kinda stuck for now.  Might have been better to break the hive down, if the population is low, take some of the drawn comb, shake all the bees off, and put the comb in with your nuc.  Then placed it in what is the middle now.  Then put a gallon of syrup over the inner cover and cross your fingers.  I would keep pouring it on as long as they will take it.  And if they are too weak to take it, I would take some mty comb and pour heavy syrup right into it, placing them back in the top.  Let them move it where they want it.  As the weather transitions into winter, it's difficult to do alot for them, but your giving them a fighting chance.

Offline BigRog

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Merging Hives
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2004, 12:32:38 pm »
It's supposed to be 72 tomorrow and in the 50's for the next 10 days
So Here's what I think I'll do.
remove the newspaper, they'll have had 4 days to be used to each others smell by then.
Put their 5 frames in the second super and gett all the bees into the 2 supers. Put syrup on top of the hive and hope they take a lot of it.
"Lurch my good man,…what did you mean when you said just now that 'You've got better things to do than run my petty little errands'…….?"

Offline Finman

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Re: Merging Hives
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2004, 02:36:49 pm »
Quote from: BigRog
I added a nuc to my hive on wed.

Any ideas, thoughts, comments would be welcomed.


I use many methods. It depend what are situations.

If it is nice summer, and nectar flows, I just put colonies together.

If another colony is under 1/3, the bigger one may kill a lot. If it only one frame, they will be all killed.

At summer I use to strengten a hive. I may take extracted super or deep, and I let bees rise there 2 hours. Then I took it and take to outer hive and just put them together.

********

At atumn bees are accurate for foreigners. Before 24 hour I take another queen away. I put bee boxes together, but queen I put under a little grid box. After a day if bees are attached to the grid, I let queen bee under the grid.

If bees do not care the cage, I let the queen free.

I do not use paper method.

At autumn bees kill odd  queen quite often without shelter but at summer it is seldom.

At autumn, when bees are near in winterball, I may drop bees on the ground  before entrance and they crawl into new hive. It is very succesful. They bellies is better to be full of sugar.

Anonymous

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Merging Hives
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2004, 09:47:27 pm »
Bigrog,
Did you put a couple of slices in the newspaper with a sharp knife? If so, then maybe it has been too cold for the bees to be too active. It normally takes about 3-4 days for them to combine. One note, after they do combine you should get back into the hive in a week or so in order to take out the rest of the newspaper because the bees will propolis it to the frames and hive body.
If you want to combine them without newspaper you might try this.
Fill a spray bottle with a light sugar mix. When you open the parent colony take out some frames and spray them with the sugar mix. Before you add the nuc, take out each frame and spray each side with the sugar, spraying bees and all in both hives. The main reason that bees reject strangers is that they smell different. If you spray the bees and the comb that they are on with sugar water they will all smell the same. I've tried this and after closely watching the hive for a day or two have not seen any dead bees being brought out and the hive definitely prospered.

Offline BigRog

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Merging Hives
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2004, 12:08:39 am »
Sunday will be 4 days since I merged them. Yes I put about 10 small slices in the newspaper.
The forcast for tomorrow is now 74 after that its a week of low fifties. So tomorrow I go in and take out the paper. I am also going to move the frames with brood and honey from the nuc and place them down one super. Hope the girls are in a good mood.
"Lurch my good man,…what did you mean when you said just now that 'You've got better things to do than run my petty little errands'…….?"

Offline golfpsycho

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Merging Hives
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2004, 12:41:17 am »
Good luck Big Rog.  I hope they make it through for you.

Anonymous

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Merging Hives
« Reply #7 on: November 08, 2004, 08:20:32 am »
Well Bigrog, How did it go?

Offline Sting

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Merging Hives
« Reply #8 on: November 08, 2004, 05:58:28 pm »
Yes:  How did it go BigRog?  We are all waiting in breathless anticipation....
"Where the bee sucks, there suck I." William Shakespeare: The Tempest.

My apiary is about 17 kms. (10 miles) NW (back & left) of this web-cam view:  'See any of my girls?
http://www.parliamenthill.gc.ca/text/hillcam_e.html

Offline BigRog

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Merging Hives
« Reply #9 on: November 09, 2004, 04:31:03 am »
It went well, I posted it here with pictures.

http://www.beemaster.com/beebbs/viewtopic.php?t=1437&highlight=

And I have since put two of the frames that I left out for them to rob the honey off of into my feeder cover. It's a little taller than a deep and my homemade top feeder and the two frames fit in there.
"Lurch my good man,…what did you mean when you said just now that 'You've got better things to do than run my petty little errands'…….?"