# How many entrances needed for a combine



## Arbol (Apr 28, 2017)

no, just leave the lower entrance, bees will chew through the paper in less than an hour, believe me I've tested this over the years on dozens of different hives. max time is 3-4hrs and the bees have the slits in the newspaper open.
leave them alone for a week.

if you have a laying worker hive, best to shake it out and be done with them, worthless now. they will not flip back. could cause problems with the combine.

I wouldn't ever combine a lw hive with a good colony. dump em and be done with them. up to you.


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## Aroc (May 18, 2016)

Not using newspaper. A few threads on here about using screen instead. 

I've heard shaking can cause trouble also with bees returning to a queenright hive and killing queen.


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

Two entrances are needed due to the time it will take to set the LWs right. you don't want them to overheat or confided for that long.

You can put the entrances on different sides. Or the same side but if that's the case give them some time before opening the top hive maybe 20 min (if it's not hot outside).

Here's the thread, also see post#12; http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?330787-Laying-Worker-Easy-Fix

>if you have a laying worker hive, best to shake it out and be done with them, worthless now. they will not flip back. could cause problems with the combine.

Shaking them out could cause the LWs to fly into a QR hive and kill their queen. Screening them above or below fixes them every time!


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

It doesn't matter if shaking or combining the 2 hives using various method. A LWs hive is different from the
typical QL hive combining to make a QR hive. 
If the bees don't like the queen or it is a rather weak queen then
they will killed her anyway. Over the years I've killed many such
queens combining at the wrong time of the season. Summer time now is
the most vulnerable for the queen. There is a risk involved every time you
bring a LWs hive and a QR hive together. Many bees will died because of 
fighting. Instead of making more bees now the hive after the combine is
weakened. There are situation that you have to evaluate the hives to warrant a
combine or not. If this don't work out then be ready to have many queens for a backup. Now you have a larger LWs hive to deal with after the combine. What a messy and headache situation.
In your situation, yes, you would need an upper entrance also. Bees need to go out to relief themselves too. Cooping them up without an entrance will increase the
irritation when they cannot be relax.


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## Aroc (May 18, 2016)

I do understand the risk with combing these two hives. I haven't completely decided to do it yet. The last week or so that I have checked the LW hive there has been no brood activity whatsoever.


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## Bdfarmer555 (Oct 7, 2015)

I'm betting it will work great, and that within a week, 50%+ of the bees from the laying worker half will migrate to the queen right side. If I have a nuc go laying worker, I often just set in on top of a queenright colony, without the screen. They just move to the colony that has its stuff together. 

The screen makes it even more effective, I imagine. I thought that thread was awesome. Likely my only use for those screen bottom boards I have from when I started.


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## Hickory Point Hollow (Mar 23, 2017)

I had a 10 frame deep and a nuc box with 5 frames. Neither was doing great. I had pulled a frame out of a queen right hive and placed it in the nuc box about 2 weeks ago. Not much going on so I put literally a window screen over the 10 frame box put another deep on, placed the 5 frames from nuc in that on top of the other deep. Then I shook the nuc box bees out and just flipped it upside down on top - giving them a top entrance as my nuc boxes are fixed bottoms with entrances on bottom. So, I had quite a sight - an inverted nuc box that served as a top entrance 5 frames wide and then covering the other half of the deep box I used the nuc box top with my jar feeder. Then was the screen and original deep. I removed the screen last night and removed the nuc box completely and put a telescoping cover back on - I had them combined about 6 days and cant say I saw any fighting - I did have 4 or 5 queen cells on one of the frames in the nuc box. I am not sure what will happen now - waiting to see if I have a good queen already and the workers will tear down the cells or they might hatch a new queen which will likely kill the older queen....


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## Aroc (May 18, 2016)

We elected to remove the combine. We put them together with a metal screen and their own entrance facing the opposite direction. When we looked in the hive today, there was evidence of a laying worker.

Decided to just take the combined box and set it up again as it's own colony. We will just let it die out and harvest the honey. One thing is for sure a queen less/brood less hive makes a lot of honey.


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## DavidZ (Apr 9, 2016)

lw's don't make much honey.

take them away from the apiary shake them out and be done with them, why waste your resources on dead/dying bees.
I wasted time and money playing with that trash for several different seasons. never again. I will never add brood or eggs to a lw
hive, wow what a waste of brood. that's cash going down the drain. shake them out and away, they won't bother your hives, and won't kill the queen.


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