# Cut Out and Combine



## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

Cut out then leave them be for a week. Then newspaper combine over the cut out colony.


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## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

dwmiller said:


> do you all recommend doing it this way or handling differently


Put a frame of eggs and very young larvae from the cutout in the weak hive. If they make a queen cell it will confirm that they are queenless. If they don't make a queen cell, then you may be dealing with a weak queen or laying workers, and you will need to take steps accordingly. Don't try to save too much of the brood from the kestrel box or you may place additional stress on the cutout colony.


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

Don't try to save too much of the brood from the kestrel box or you may place additional stress on the cutout colony.

Your rationale' behind this statement?


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## DJS (May 7, 2012)

I have combined several cut outs I do late in the year with queenless or week hives and have had good results. I agree don't Mr. Beeman don't save much comb and watch for SHB if you have them in your area after doing a cutout.


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## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

Mr.Beeman said:


> Don't try to save too much of the brood from the kestrel box or you may place additional stress on the cutout colony.
> 
> Your rationale' behind this statement?


My track record has been much better with cutouts when I haven't tried to save much brood, particularly uncapped brood. My best results are with putting in frames of clean, empty drawn comb and a little capped honey from another hive, with a queen excluder between the bottom board and the bottom box.


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## dwmiller (Jun 4, 2012)

So are you saying to put the swarm into a hive with drawn comb, but don't worry about saving the comb they built in the kestrel box? Instead just get the bees and queen in there?


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

Thankfully we don't have an issue with shb here. Most often, we remove everything and install the bees and brood comb into a smaller space than they came from. The way I look at it is that the bees had enough population to cover the brood that they have before the removal, so they should have no problems with covering , tending to it after. Most often some is lost due to the trimming/banding process. I do remove all drone comb cells though. Haven't had an issue yet.
So I guess I do lose some in the process anyways. lol


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## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

dwmiller said:


> So are you saying to put the swarm into a hive with drawn comb, but don't worry about saving the comb they built in the kestrel box? Instead just get the bees and queen in there?


You are not likely to use a bee vac in this situation, so it is not so critical. In my location, trying to save too much brood with the cutout has not worked well. If you want to save the brood, put it in an established hive. Rubber banding one frame with some eggs or very young larvae and putting it with the cutout is a good idea to save the genetics from the cutout if the queen is lost and to lock down the bees. More than that has not worked well for me.


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