# Combining hives with screen



## DirtyDusty (May 21, 2011)

Found a hive at my out yard that had a drone laying queen. I had a nuc that was started a few weeks ago with a new queen. Didn't have newspaper to combine them, so I used a queen excluder and a layer of #8 hardware cloth to separate them. Waited four days then removed the screen and excluder. Bees seemed to act normal, so I will check back in a few days to see if she was accepted. Anyone else try this?


----------



## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

I would have pinched the drone laying queen, waited a couple of hours and then combined.


----------



## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

That is my plan for my next laying worker hive. Wait a week, remove screen, leave excluder then add brood frame below. Let us know how it works for you.


----------



## DirtyDusty (May 21, 2011)

Charlie B said:


> I would have pinched the drone laying queen, waited a couple of hours and then combined.


I did.


----------



## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

This is my absolute favorite way to combine a hive. Keeps the new queen active and laying with her own workers while letting the receiving colony become accustom to her scent. Especially when the receiving colony is in it's original location and had a lot of older foragers that are more hostile to a new queen than younger bees. You can do this at the same time you split a hive or remove an old queen ..making it good for immediate changes without any waiting period, and thus avoiding the need to check receiving hive for wild queen cells. I think it is the best way to introduce any queen. No confinement of queen, no real disruption of ether colony. You can leave the queen and her colony upstairs for a week or more easily. Give her an upper entrance if you don't want to confine her colony to avoid foragers returning to old location. Give the lower colony a lower entrance.


----------



## dirt road (Jan 4, 2011)

Lauri said:


> This is my absolute favorite way to combine a hive.


Lauri, do you use a single screen or a double screen?

Also wondering if anyone has noticed a difference in results with the queenright hive on the bottom as opposed to the top?


----------



## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

Every once in awhile i will unit my mini nucs.

Find a strong mini and just set the weaker or laying workers nuc on top. 

No fighting it has always worked
Usually when done it has been in the middle of day when lot of the work force is out working.


----------



## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

My inner covers are screened, so I just plop a box with the frames I want to combine on the single screen. 
Queen top or bottom, no matter. I am combining some of my mating nucs on half sized deeps this way for overwintering. Give them a few days, then remove the seperating screen and Place it back on top under the cover. They are happy and content. No issues or queen cells.

So here you see the screened inner cover on the front half of the double colony box. 

To combine two colonies, leave the screen on the bottom box, place the second box on the screen. If you give the top box it's own entrance, you can leave them seperate as long as you like. A few days is sufficient, unless you can't visit your yard regularly. Then they are still fine until you combine.


----------



## mroark (Oct 2, 2012)

I found a hive with a laying worker yesterday. Lots of cells with multiple eggs and or eggs on the sides of cells. Anyway, I have a couple nucs with capped queen cells which and I hope to have mated queens in a week or less. I am not sure I can find the worker who's doing the laying, can I use the method described above to combine one of the nucs into the laying worker hive?


----------



## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

There should be many workers laying, not just one so I would not even look. Working for Lauri and Velbert, would get my vote.


----------



## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Saltybee is correct. More on the concept of multiple laying workers:



> *There are always multiple laying workers even in a queenright hive*
> 
> "Anarchistic bees" are ever present but usually in small enough numbers to not cause a problem and are simply policed by the workers UNLESS they need drones. The number is always small as long as ovary development is suppressed.
> 
> ...


----------

